[JURIST] A 53-page report [report] published Thursday by the UN states that even though civilian casualties in eastern Ukraine have decreased, despair among those in the conflict area has grown. Speaking about the report [press release], UN High Commissioner for Human RightsZeid Ra’ad Al Hussein [official profile] said that the civilian casualty rate was “among the lowest since the beginning of the conflict,” but “[t]here is a terrible sensation of physical, political, social and economic isolation and abandonment among the … people.” Other issues are still significantly impacting those in affected areas, such as missing persons, power outages, illegal detentions and deprivation of access to justice. Zeid also expressed concern over the lack of investigations into claims of human rights abuses and urged the implementation of the Minsk Agreements as “the only viable strategy for achieving a peaceful solution in certain areas of eastern Ukraine controlled by armed groups, which, in turn, is key for resolving the human rights crisis in Ukraine.”

Russia and Ukraine have been in conflict since the annexation of Crimea [JURIST backgrounder] in March 2014. A Ukrainian official said in January that the nation plans to sue Russia [JURIST report] in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on claims of financing terrorism. In December the UN issued a report about serious human rights concerns [JURIST report] that persist in Ukraine. In August a Russian military court sentenced [JURIST report] two Ukrainian activists to substantial jail time for the charge of conspiring to commit terror attacks. Last March the EU committed to stand by [JURIST report] its policy of refusing to recognize Crimea’s annexation, as they purport the illegality of Russia’s referendum. In February of last year Russian liberal political activist Boris Nemtsov was shot in the back four times [BBC report] in the middle of busy downtown Moscow. Nemtsov was openly politically opposed to Russia’s annexation of Crimea and its role in Ukraine, and many believe Vladimir Putin ordered the killing.