You're reading: Associated Press: Rights group says civilians abused by rivals in Ukraine conflict

Associated Press: Rights group says civilians abused by rivals in Ukraine conflict

By Associated Press.

Published Jan. 12, 2017 at 6:16 pm

Local residents carry the water bottles in Toretsk, Donetsk Oblast on Nov. 26. Toretsk is cut out of water supply due to the heavy shelling which broke the water pipe.

Photo by Anastasia Vlasova

MOSCOW – A human rights group says civilians are being abducted and tortured by fighters on both sides of the separatist conflict in eastern Ukraine.

An annual report released by Human Rights Watch on Jan. 12 accused the Ukrainian government and Russian-backed separatists of holding dozens of civilians in arbitrary detention in Ukraine’s industrial east, where fighting has killed more than 9,600 people since 2014.