The death toll of the violent conflict between Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatist rebels in Eastern Ukraine has reached more than 6,400, with more than 600 of the casualties being women and girls, according to the United Nations.
Despite the already grisly number of casualties, officials warn that the updated death toll was merely an estimate and that the actual number of people killed in the conflict "could be considerably higher," according to The International Business Times.
"Serious human rights abuses, intimidation, and harassment of the local population perpetrated by the armed groups continued to be reported," the UN report stated.
"The monitoring mission received new allegations of killings, torture and ill-treatment, as well as cases of illegal deprivation of liberty, forced labor, looting, ransom remands and extortion of money on the territories controlled by the armed groups," it added.
As the numbers of the casualties rise, the United Nations has found increasing, though inconclusive proof, of Russia's involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, according to Reuters.
Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic has stated that the number of Russian fighters, albeit unofficial, has steadily increased lately.
"We are speaking about increasing inflow of (unofficial) fighters and increasing evidence that there are also some (Russian) servicemen involved in fighting," he said.
Armen Harutyunyan, head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine agrees with the U.N.'s assumption, though he also agrees that proving the number of servicemen casualties would prove difficult.
"It is very difficult to prove whether they are servicemen or not. That is why mostly we are speaking about 'fighters' of the Russian federation," he said.
Russia continues to deny the allegations. However, if conclusive evidence does emerge of the country's involvement in the Ukrainian crisis, Russia may need to answer to allegations of war and potentially face trials at the International Criminal Court.
