Ukraine: civilian casualty update 3 October 2022

Date: 3 October 2022¹

From 1 to 30 September 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 1,222 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 299 killed (93 men, 73 women, 5 girls, 6 boys, as well as 1 child and 121 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
• 923 injured (200 men, 129 women, 15 girls, 27 boys, as well as 17 children and 535 adults whose sex is yet unknown).

This included:

• 236 killed and 790 injured in 129 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (84 percent of the total); and
• 63 killed and 133 injured in 10 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (16 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 292 killed and 872 injured (95 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 7 killed and 51 injured (5 per cent).

Total civilian casualties from 24 February to 2 October 2022

From 24 February to 2 October 2022, OHCHR recorded 15,246 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 6,114 killed and 9,132 injured.

• a total of 6,114 killed (2,380 men, 1,633 women, 162 girls, and 193 boys, as well as 35 children and 1,711 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 9,132 injured (1,912 men, 1,382 women, 196 girls, and 268 boys, as well as 226 children and 5,148 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 8,527 casualties (3,644 killed and 4,883 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 6,768 casualties (3,254 killed and 3,514 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 1,759 casualties (390 killed and 1,369 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: 6,719 casualties (2,470 killed and 4,249 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.

Civilian casualties in Ukraine from 24 February to 2 October2022, per month²

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.