The newest report from the Office of United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights does not pull any punches. It says, “a total breakdown of law and order and a reign of fear and terror have been inflicted by armed groups on the population of eastern Ukraine.”

The report documents how these armed groups continue to abduct, detain, torture and execute people kept as hostages in order to intimidate and “to exercise their power over the population in raw and brutal ways.” Well organized and well equipped militarily, these armed groups have intensified their challenge to the Government of Ukraine, the report says. In response, there has been an acceleration of Government security operations during July in the areas still under the control of the armed groups, with heavy fighting located in and around population centres, resulting in loss of life, property and infrastructure and causing thousands to flee. “The reports of increasingly intense fighting in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions are extremely alarming, with both sides employing heavy weaponry in built-up areas, including artillery, tanks, rockets and missiles,” said UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay. “Both sides must take great care to prevent more civilians from being killed or injured,” she added. “Already increasing numbers of people are being killed with serious damage to civilian infrastructure, which – depending on circumstances – could amount to violations of international humanitarian law. The fighting must stop.”

The report, which covers the period immediately before the crash of MH17 (July 8th through July 15th). The report also notes that as time has gone on, the situation in eastern Ukraine has become dire, but the situation elsewhere has also deteriorated. Hate speech is on the rise across the country as the civilian casualties mount in eastern Ukraine. But the report also very strongly states that the source of these problems stem from the chaos in the east where militias have killed dissenters and detained journalists: