Aid groups warn of deepening crisis as Nato states consider arming Ukraine

An elderly Ukrainian man is helped by a Ukrainian army soldier and a citizen during a evacuation of civilians from Debaltseve in the Donetsk region. Photograph: AFP Photo / Manu Brabomanu Brabo

International aid agencies are warning of a deepening humanitarian crisis in eastern Ukraine, as Nato states consider supplying weapons to Ukrainian government forces that are locked in heavy fighting with Russian-backed separatists.

The United Nations said yesterday that by conservative estimates more than 5,350 people had been killed and more than 12,200 injured since fighting began in Donetsk and Luhansk regions last April. Civilians have been dying at a rate of more than 10 a day during a resurgence in hostilities over the last three weeks.

The UNs high commissioner for human rights, Zeid Raad Al Hussein, said both sides in the conflict were to blame for indiscriminate shelling of residential areas in both government-controlled territory and in areas controlled by the armed groups.

Bus stops and public transport, marketplaces, schools and kindergartens, hospitals and residential areas have become battlegrounds . . . in clear breach of international humanitarian law, he said.

Kiev and the militants blame each other for the collapse of a fragile ceasefire, and the rebels have vowed to mobilise an additional 100,000 fighters to push back Ukrainian forces that they claim are intent on killing all those who support their bid to break with Kiev and forge closer ties, or even unite, with Russia.

The heaviest fighting is now around the government-held rail and road hub of Debaltseve, and Kiev, the US and Nato accuse Russia of sending troops and advanced tanks, artillery pieces and air-defence systems to help the insurgents.

The situation is getting worse by the day, said Michael Masson, head of the International Committee of the Red Cross in Ukraine.

People are hiding in basements for days on end and those who dare to venture out to collect basic aid risk being wounded or killed.

Stphane Prvost, the head of mission for Mdecins Sans Frontires in Ukraine, said civilians and medical staff on both sides of the front line are bearing the brunt of this conflict. At the same time, the rapidly deteriorating security conditions mean that access for organisations to provide humanitarian aid to people who desperately need it is severely limited.

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Aid groups warn of deepening crisis as Nato states consider arming Ukraine