Ukraine: civilian casualty update 1 April 2022

Date: 1 April 2022

From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 31 March 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 3,257 civilian casualties in the country: 1,276 killed and 1,981 injured. This included:

• a total of 1,276 killed (260 men, 184 women, 18 girls, and 36 boys, as well as 61 children and 717 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 1,981 injured (228 men, 174 women, 38 girls, and 34 boys, as well as 88 children and 1,419 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 1,443 casualties (425 killed and 1,018 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 1,130 casualties (358 killed and 772 injured)
    • On territory controlled by the self-proclaimed ‘republics’: 313 casualties (67 killed and 246 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: 1,814 casualties (851 killed and 963 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 multiple launch rocket systems, and missile 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 and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Popasna (Luhansk region), and Irpin (Kyiv region), where there are allegations of numerous 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 8 a.m. 1 April (local time), 153 children had been killed and 245 injured.

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An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 24:00 midnight on 30 March 2022 (local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 31 March only, as during the day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported on 31 March have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.

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.

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.