Here are some more details from RFE/RL's news desk on the new Ukraine casualty figures:
A senior UN official says the death toll in the conflict in eastern Ukraine exceeds 5,358 and urged all sides to halt a potentially "catastrophic" escalation in fighting between government forces and Russian-backed separatists.
In a statement issued on February 3, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said that at least 224 civilians were killed and 545 wounded as fighting intensified in the last three weeks of January.
The statement said the estimate of at least 5,358 people killed and 12,235 wounded since mid-April was "conservative" and that UN agencies believe the actual number of deaths is "considerably higher."
"Any further escalation will prove catastrophic for the 5.2 million people living in the midst of conflict in eastern Ukraine," Zeid said.
He called on governments and "all those with influence in the region to take measures to ensure full compliance" with a cease-fire and peace plan signed in Minsk in September, the statement said.
Another Ukraine-related update from RFE/RL's news desk:
A Ukrainian official says Polish economist and former politician Leszek Balcerowicz will advise Ukraine on economic reforms but will not accept a government position.
Dmytro Shymkiv, the deputy head of Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko's administration, said on February 2 that Balcerowicz is prepared to "give advice, consider certain ideas, and draft plans and make comments" regarding economic issues.
But Shymkiv said Balcerowicz refused to accept an official position in the Ukrainian government.
Balcerowicz, 68, is considered the architect of economic reforms in 1990 in Poland, where he was chairman of the central bank, deputy prime minister, and finance minister.
His reform of Poland's socialist economy was known as the Balcerowicz Plan and "shock therapy."
The changes aimed to end hyperinflation and balance the budget but were criticized by many for being too harsh and leading to high unemployment.
(Interfax, Kyiv Post)