Ukraine: civilian casualty update 5 September 2022

August 2022

From 1 to 31 August 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 1,162 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 294 killed (80 men, 79 women, 3 girls, 6 boys, and 126 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
• 868 injured (217 men, 186 women, 22 girls, 17 boys, as well as 15 children and 411 adults whose sex is yet unknown).

This included:

• 228 killed and 631 injured in 125 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (74 percent of the total); and
• 66 killed and 237 injured in 8 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (26 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 287 killed and 821 injured (95 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 7 killed and 47 injured (5 per cent).

Civilian casualties caused by explosive weapons with wide area effects in August 2022

Total civilian casualties from 24 February to 4 September 2022

From 24 February to 4 September 2022, OHCHR recorded 13,917 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 5,718 killed and 8,199 injured.

• a total of 5,718 killed (2,214 men, 1,526 women, 151 girls, and 186 boys, as well as 35 children and 1,606 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 8,199 injured (1,693 men, 1,250 women, 179 girls, and 245 boys, as well as 211 children and 4,621 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 7,853 casualties (3,396 killed and 4,457 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 6,279 casualties (3,072 killed and 3,207 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 1,574 casualties (324 killed and 1,250 injured)
  • In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 6,064 casualties (2,322 killed and 3,742 injured)

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles 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), Lysychansk, Popasna, and Sievierodonetsk (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.

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 andnumbers may change as new information emerges over time. 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.