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Chart: Street Battles Rage In Luhansk - The Escalating Cost In Eastern Ukraine

This article is more than 9 years old.

Ukrainian troops have fought their way into the regional capital of Luhansk, engaging in pitched street battles with pro-Russian rebels. Even though the Ukrainian military has made significant progress over the past few weeks, the humanitarian situation in rebel-held cities like Luhansk has been deteriorating rapidly.

In addition to the fighting, the residents there have struggled without electricity and running water for the past 17 days. Artillery fire struck the city overnight while a convoy of refugees fleeing the fighting was shelled on Monday, killing dozens.

According to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, eastern Ukraine is experiencing an average of 60 casualties per day. Since mid-April alone, over 2,000 people have been killed with the number of wounded reaching 5,000 by August 13th. The refugee crisis has also escalated rapidly - 22,000 people fled rebel-held Donetsk in a five-day period last week, illustrating the severity of the situation. 188,000 people have crossed the Russian border to escape the fighting and around 155,800 more are internally displaced.

*Click below to enlarge (charted by Statista)