Ukraine: civilian casualty update 21 November 2022

Date: 21 November 2022¹

From 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 20 November 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 16,784 civilian casualties in the country: 6,595 killed and 10,189 injured. This included:

• a total of 6,595 killed (2,575 men, 1,767 women, 172 girls, and 206 boys, as well as 37 children and 1,838 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 10,189 injured (2,212 men, 1,579 women, 211 girls, and 299 boys, as well as 245 children and 5,643 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 9,277 casualties (3,939 killed and 5,338 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 7,305 casualties (3,490 killed and 3,815 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 1,972 casualties (449 killed and 1,523 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: 7,507 casualties (2,656 killed and 4,851 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 from 1 to 20 November2022(individual cases verified by OHCHR)
From 1 to 20 November 2022, OHCHR recorded 400 civilian casualties:

• 95 killed (25 men, 19 women, 2 girls, 1 boy, as well as 3 children and 45 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
• 305 injured (94 men, 56 women, 5 girls, 8 boys, as well as 3 children and 139 adults whose sex is yet unknown).

This included:

• 79 killed and 251 injured in 81 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (82.5 percent of the total); and
• 16 killed and 54 injured in 6 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (17.5 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 89 killed and 274 injured (91 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 6 killed and 31 injured (9 per cent).

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.

1/ An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 13 November 2022) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 14 to 20 November only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 14 to 20 November have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.