Ukraine: civilian casualty update 3 June 2022

Date: 3 June 2022

From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 2 June 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 9,197 civilian casualties in the country: 4,183 killed and 5,014 injured. This included:

• a total of 4,183 killed (1,584 men, 1,049 women, 99 girls, and 102 boys, as well as 67 children and 1,282 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 5,014 injured (999 men, 695 women, 116 girls, and 141 boys, as well as 170 children and 2,893 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 5,264 casualties (2,400 killed and 2,864 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 4,514 casualties (2,253 killed and 2,261 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian affiliated armed groups: 750 casualties (147 killed and 603 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: 3,933 casualties (1,783 killed and 2,150 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.

An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 24:00 midnight on 1 June 2022 (local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 2 June only, as during this day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported on 2 June 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.