Ivan Simonovic

According to the Serbian Ministry of Defense, about 500 officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the armed forces of the United States, United Kingdom, United Arab Emirates, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Montenegro and Serbia will take part in the exercise.

Ivan Simonovic's visit is the first to Macedonia by a senior UN human rights official since 1999 and he will be joined by colleagues from the UN Department of Political Affairs.

Simonovic will be meeting the country's embattled authorities "and other stakeholders on the current political situation as it relates to relevant human rights considerations," a press release reads.

The number of people confirmed killed in the Ukraine conflict has risen above 3,000 if the victims of the MH17 plane crash are included, and the actual figure may be significantly higher, a senior U.N. human rights official said on Sept. 8.
   

A total of 2,593 people, including civilians as well as Ukrainian and separatist combatants, have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine since it erupted in mid-April, a senior U.N. human rights official said on Aug. 29.
 

A total of 127 people have died in Ukraine's east and south as a result of violence over the past weeks, a United Nations official reported Wednesday.

"More arms, and more arms" are being used in the standoff, as Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights Ivan Simonovic was quoted by the Washington Post as telling the UN Security Council.