Ukraine: civilian casualty update 24 May 2022

Date: 24 May 2022

From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 23 May 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 8,533 civilian casualties in the country: 3,942 killed and 4,591 injured. This included:

• a total of 3,942 killed (1,489 men, 976 women, 90 girls, and 99 boys, as well as 69 children and 1,219 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 4,591 injured (908 men, 603 women, 107 girls, and 128 boys, as well as 164 children and 2,681 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 4,787 casualties (2,209 killed and 2,578 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 4,134 casualties (2,081 killed and 2,053 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian affiliated armed groups: 653 casualties (128 killed and 525 injured)
  • In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Rivne, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 3,746 casualties (1,733 killed and 2,013 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 multiple launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.

OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, 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, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), and Popasna (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.

An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 24:00 midnight on 22 May 2022 (local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 23 May only, as during this day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported on 23 May have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.

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 confidentiallyshared 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.