The United Nations on Friday (February 3) voiced concern about potential “environmental disasters” in eastern Ukraine, following renewed clashes along the front line near the government-held town of Avdiyivka since January 29, the heaviest than at any time since last summer.
The February 2015 Minsk peace agreement only locked the two sides in a stalemate that has been broken periodically by a sharp resurgence of fighting that Kiev and the Kremlin accuse each other of instigating.
“Since 29th of January until 0900 hours today, 3rd of February, shelling has killed at least 7 people and injured a further 41, according to U.N. Human Rights office staff. Of these, on Thursday night alone, the hostilities killed the civilians and injured 13,” the U.N. human rights office spokeswoman Elizabeth Throssell told reporters during a news briefing in Geneva.
Civilians in both government and separatist-held territory are especially at risk because damage to utilities infrastructure has left thousands with little or no access to electricity or water amidst subzero winter cold. Persistent fighting has hampered repair efforts.
The office warned of environmental danger posed by possible acid leaks from a phenol plant near the village of Novhorodske where the two sides’ combatants are only 400 metres apart.
“The chemical waste of a phenol plant near the village of Novhorodske is caught between government and armed group positions. Shelling is also taking place close to water filter stations, Donetsk and Verkhniokalmiuska, which contain chlorine tanks. The interruption of power supplies in Avdiyivka as a result of shelling means sewage cannot be pumped and instead is being discharged into the environment,” Throssell warned.
The World Food Programme said it would provide 7,000 food parcels for people in Avdiyivka, through a local partner, while food for a month for around 4,000 people had been delivered.
A regional director for the International Committee of the Red Cross said that the ICRC had recommended the creation of up to seven “safety zones” around key power and infrastructure such as pumping stations close to the front line.
“What is proposed here is for all sides to agree that those areas should not be subjected to military activity, especially artillery shelling, which means that there has to be an agreement on all sides and there has to be some form of withdrawal of military forces present on or close to these sites,” the ICRC regional director for Europe and Central Asia Patrick Vial told reporters in Geneva.
Previous OSCE-backed efforts to have forces disengage from front lines have had mixed or no success.
Ukraine and Russia blame each other for the flare-up.
