Ukraine: civilian casualty update 19 December 2022

Date: 19 December 2022¹

From 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 18 December 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 17,595 civilian casualties in the country: 6,826 killed and 10,769 injured. This included:

• a total of 6,826 killed (2,686 men, 1,822 women, 174 girls, and 216 boys, as well as 38 children and 1,890 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 10,769 injured (2,336 men, 1,690 women, 224 girls, and 314 boys, as well as 252 children and 5,953 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 9,620 casualties (4,036 killed and 5,584 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 7,519 casualties (3,553 killed and 3,966 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 2,101 casualties (483 killed and 1,618 injured)
  • In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kirovohrad, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, Khmelnytskyi, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 7,975 casualties (2,790 killed and 5,185 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 18 December2022(individual cases verified by OHCHR)
From 1 to 18 December 2022, OHCHR recorded 462 civilian casualties:

• 123 killed (52 men, 26 women, 4 boys, as well as 41 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
• 339 injured (76 men, 72 women, 7 girls, 4 boys, as well as 2 children and 178 adults whose sex is yet unknown).

This included:

• 101 killed and 275 injured in 70 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (81 percent of the total); and
• 22 killed and 64 injured in 6 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (19 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 106 killed and 320 injured (92 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 17 killed and 19 injured (8 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.

1/ An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 11 December 2022) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 12 to 18 December only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 12 to 18 December have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.