Ukraine: civilian casualty update 14 March 2022

Date: 14 March 2022

Between 04:00 on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, and 24:00 on 13 March 2022 (local time), OHCHR recorded 1,761 civilian casualties in the country: 636 killed and 1,125 injured. This included:

• a total of 636 killed (127 men, 91 women, 6 girls, and 10 boys, as well as 30 children and 372 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 1,125 injured (101 men, 71 women, 15 girls, and 4 boys, as well as 43 children and 891 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 720 casualties (148 killed and 572 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 564 casualties (122 killed and 442 injured)
    • On territory controlled by the self-proclaimed ‘republics’: 156 casualties (26 killed and 130 injured)
  • In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 1,041 casualties (488 killed and 553 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 multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.

OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, 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, Izium (Kharkiv region), and Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region) where there are allegations of hundreds of civilian casualties. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics.

OHCHR notes the report of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, according to which as of 09:00 (local time) 14 March 2022, 90 children had been killed and more than 100 injured. OHCHR also notes the report of the Head of the Investigative Department of the National Police of Kharkiv Region, according to which as of 18:00 (local time) 13 March 2022, 212 civilians had been killed in the region.
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An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 24:00 midnight on 12 March 2022 local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 13 March only, as during the day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days.

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 andnumbersmaychangeasnewinformationemergesovertime.

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.

ENDS

Ukrainian and Russian language versions of this update as they become available, please visit this page.