The past two weeks have nearly doubled the number of deaths in the Ukraine conflict, Cecile Pouilly, spokeswoman for the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, told Reuters.
The death toll was at least 2,086 on August 10, compared to 1,129 on July 26.
As we noted earlier, another 5,000 have been wounded.
Pouilly said the figures corresponded to "a clear escalating trend."
She said the figures include Ukrainian soldiers, armed groups, pro-Russian militants, and civilians and are "very conservative estimates."
Here's the Ukrainian version of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council's map of the military situation today. We'll add the English-language version as soon as it comes available.
Interfax quotes separatist "militia headquarters" as rejecting speculation that its fighters are encircled in Donetsk but acknowledging that pro-Kyiv forces are present north, south, and west of the city.
Having failed to take the towns of Shakhtarsk and Kraskiy Luch, the pro-Russian fighters said, the circle around Donetsk still eludes the Ukrainian forces.
The basis for the idea that helicopters are accompanying the convoy appears to be this tweet:
The Polish Foreign Ministry today summoned the Russian ambassador to protest remarks by Russian nationalist politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski said Zhirinovsky's suggestion on Russian TV last week that Poland and the Baltic states would be "wiped out" if war breaks out between Russia and the West was "scandalous."
He said Zhirinovsky, a lawmaker and the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, "is neither a backbencher nor a private person."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel was quoted as telling "Saechsischen Zeitung" that "I am trying not to allow the sanctions to undermine the thread of talks with the Russian president," according to dpa, adding, "I've always argued for cooperating constructively with Russia and I'm ready to do so in future...but constructive dialogue must come from more than one."
Russian media report that a "camp" set up early this morning by Ukrainian authorities near the Pletenivka checkpoint in the Kharkiv region -- purportedly in connection with the Russian aid convoy -- was dismantled and vehicles and personnel were leaving the area.
The United Nations rights office says more than 60 people a day have been killed or wounded in eastern Ukraine since mid-April, pushing the list of injured to nearly 5,000 people, Reuters reports.
Reuters quotes a "source" as saying EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is prepared to convene a special foreign ministers' meeting as early as this week on Ukraine, Iraq.