Ukraine: civilian casualty update 3 April 2023

Date: 3 April 2023¹

March 2023

From 1 to 31 March 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 765 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 178 killed (100 men, 51 women, 7 boys, 1 girl, as well as 19 adults whose sex is not yet known); and
• 587 injured (251 men, 116 women, 23 boys, 2 girls, as well as 2 children and 193 adults whose sex is not yet known).

This included:

• 154 killed and 505 injured in 138 settlements in territory controlled by the Government when casualties occurred (86 percent of the total); and
• 24 killed and 82 injured in 21 settlements in territory occupied by the Russian Federation when casualties occurred (14 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 149 killed and 514 injured (87 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 29 killed and 73 injured (13 per cent).

Total civilian casualties from 24 February 2022 to 2 April 2023

From 24 February 2022, which marked the start of the large-scale armed attack by the Russian Federation, to 2 April 2023, OHCHR recorded 22,607 civilian casualties in the country: 8,451 killed and 14,156 injured. This included:

• 18,180 casualties (6,567 killed and 11,613 injured) in territory controlled by the Government when casualties occurred:
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 9,358 casualties (3,903 killed and 5,455 injured); and
  • In other regions^/ : 8,822 casualties (2,664 killed and 6,158 injured).
• 4,427 casualties (1,884 killed and 2,543 injured) in territory occupied by the Russian Federation when casualties occurred:
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 2,941 casualties (642 killed and 2,299 injured); and
  • In other regions³: 1,486 casualties (1,242 killed and 244 injured).

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), 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.

1] An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 26 March 2023) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 27 March to 2 April only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 27 March to 2 April have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.

2] The city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Khmelnitskyi, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, and Zhytomyr regions.

3] Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia regions.