Ukraine: civilian casualty update 22 August 2022

Date: 22 August 2022¹

From 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 21 August 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 13,477 civilian casualties in the country: 5,587 killed and 7,890 injured. This included:

• a total of 5,587 killed (2,161 men, 1,490 women, 149 girls, and  175 boys, as well as 38 children and 1,574 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 7,890 injured (1,603 men, 1,190 women, 172 girls, and 236 boys, as well as 202 children and 4,487 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 7,620 casualties (3,317 killed and 4,303 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 6,145 casualties (3,015 killed and 3,130 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 1,475 casualties (302 killed and 1,173 injured)
  • In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 5,857 casualties (2,270 killed and 3,587 injured)

Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles 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), Lysychansk, Popasna, and Sievierodonetsk (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.

Civilian casualties from 1 to 21 August 2022(individual cases verified by OHCHR)

From 1 to 21 August 2022, OHCHR recorded 841 civilian casualties:

• 207 killed (53 men, 55 women, 2 girls, 2 boys, and 95 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
• 634 injured (153 men, 136 women, 15 girls, 15 boys, as well as 9 children and 306 adults whose sex is yet unknown).

This included:

• 156 killed and 454 injured in 102 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (73 percent of the total); and
• 51 killed and 180 injured in 7 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (27 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 201 killed and 598 injured (95 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 6 killed and 36 injured (5 per cent).

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.