The United Nations on Tuesday sharply criticized both the Ukrainian government and the pro-Russian rebels for turning bus stops, schools, markets and hospitals into battlegrounds where civilians are getting killed.
Indiscriminate shelling and an escalation in the fighting in eastern Ukraine have killed at least 224 civilians in the past three weeks alone, the U.N. said, raising the overall death toll to 5,358 people since April.
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Ukraine accuses Russia of arming the rebels, a charge that Russia denies. But Western military experts say the sheer amount of heavy weapons in rebel hands belies that denial. The U.S. and the European Union have imposed economic sanctions on Russia for its actions in Ukraine.
