Ukraine: civilian casualty update 9 March 2022

From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 8 March 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 1,424 civilian casualties in the country: 516 killed and 908 injured. These included:

-  516 killed (98 men, 60 women, 9 boys, and 5 girls, as well as 23 children and 321 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
-  908 injured (78 men, 57 women, 12 girls, and 4 boys, as well as 34 children and 723 adults whose sex is yet unknown)

The geographical breakup is as follows:

• In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 573 casualties (111 killed and 462 injured)
• On Government-controlled territory: 436 casualties (87 killed and 349 injured)
• On territory controlled by the self-proclaimed ‘republics’: 137 casualties (24 killed and 113 injured)
• In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 851 casualties (405 killed and 446 injured)

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.

OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration. This concerns, for example, the towns of Volnovakha, Mariupol, Izium where there are allegations of hundreds of civilian casualties. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics.

OHCHR notes the report of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights, according to which as of 12 p.m. (local time) 8 March, 41 children had been killed and 76 injured. OHCHR also notes a report by the National Police of Kharkiv region, according to which as of 6 p.m. (local time) 8 March, the total number of civilian casualties in Kharkiv region was 170 killed (165 adults and 5 children) and 368 injured.
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An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 12 midnight 7 March 2022 local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 8 March only, as during the day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine
Since 2014, OHCHR has been documenting civilian casualties in Ukraine. Reports are based on information that the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) collected through interviews with victims and their relatives; witnesses; analysis of corroborating material confidentially shared with HRMMU; official records; open-source documents, photo and video materials; forensic records and reports; criminal investigation materials; court documents; reports by international and national non-governmental organisations; public reports by law enforcement and military actors; data from medical facilities and local authorities. All sources and information are assessed for their relevance and credibility and cross-checked against other information. In some instances, corroboration may take time. This may mean that conclusions on civilian casualties may be revised as more information becomes available and numbers may change as new information emerges over time.

Since 24 February 2022, in the context of the Russian Federation’s military action in Ukraine, HRMMU has been unable to visit places of incidents and interview victims and witnesses there. All other sources of information have been extensively used, including HRMMU contact persons and partners in places where civilian casualties occurred. Statistics presented in the current update are based on individual civilian casualty records where the “reasonable grounds to believe” standard of proof was met, namely where, based on a body of verified information, an ordinarily prudent observer would have reasonable grounds to believe that the casualty took place as described.

ENDS

Ukrainian and Russian language versions of this update as they become available, please visit this page.