Ukraine: civilian casualty update 5 December 2022

Date: 5 December 2022¹

November 2022

From 1 to 30 November 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 688 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 162 killed (51 men, 35 women, 3 girls, 5 boys, as well as 3 children and 65 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
• 526 injured (135 men, 86 women, 9 girls, 15 boys, as well as 8 children and 273 adults whose sex is yet unknown).

This included:

• 134 killed and 446 injured in 102 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (84 percent of the total); and
• 28 killed and 80 injured in 9 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (16 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 153 killed and 487 injured (93 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 9 killed and 39 injured (7 per cent).

Total civilian casualties from 24 February to 4 December 2022

From 24 February to 4 December 2022, OHCHR recorded 17,181 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 6,702 killed and 10,479 injured.

• a total of 6,702 killed (2,626 men, 1,794 women, 174 girls, and 212 boys, as well as 38 children and 1,858 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 10,479 injured (2,273 men, 1,628 women, 217 girls, and 308 boys, as well as 250 children and 5,803 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 9,430 casualties (3,978 killed and 5,452 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 7,395 casualties (3,511 killed and 3,884 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 2,035 casualties (467 killed and 1,568 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: 7,751 casualties (2,724 killed and 5,027 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.

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 27 November 2022) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 28 November to 4 December only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 28 November to 4 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.