Ukraine: civilian casualty update 17 May 2022

Date: 17 May 2022

From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 16 May 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 7,814 civilian casualties in the country: 3,752 killed and 4,062 injured. This included:

• a total of 3,752 killed (1,406 men, 927 women, 86 girls, and 96 boys, as well as 68 children and 1,169 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 4,062 injured (675 men, 472 women, 96 girls, and 104 boys, as well as 165 children and 2,550 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 4,190 casualties (2,050 killed and 2,140 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 3,574 casualties (1,926 killed and 1,648 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian affiliated armed groups: 616 casualties (124 killed and 492 injured)
  • In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Rivne, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 3,624 casualties (1,702 killed and 1,922 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 (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), and Popasna (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.

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An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 24:00 midnight on 15 May 2022 (local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 16 May only, as during this day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported on 16 May 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 and numbers 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.