Ukraine: civilian casualty update 3 January 2023

December 2022 ¹

From 1 to 31 December 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 801 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

• 188 killed (82 men, 40 women, 4 boys, as well as 62 adults whose sex is yet unknown); and
• 613 injured (127 men, 105 women, 15 girls, 10 boys, as well as 4 children and 352 adults whose sex is yet unknown).

This included:

• 164 killed and 524 injured in 90 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (86 percent of the total); and
• 24 killed and 89 injured in 8 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (14 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 164 killed and 584 injured (93 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 24 killed and 29 injured (7 per cent).

Total civilian casualties from 24 February 2022 to 2 January 2023

From 24 February 2022 to 2 January 2023, OHCHR recorded 17,994 civilian casualties in Ukraine: 6,919 killed and 11,075 injured.

• a total of 6,919 killed (2,737 men, 1,842 women, 175 girls, and 216 boys, as well as 38 children and 1,911 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• a total of 11,075 injured (2,401 men, 1,729 women, 233 girls, and 321 boys, as well as 254 children and 6,137 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 9,736 casualties (4,062 killed and 5,674 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 7,600 casualties (3,576 killed and 4,024 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 2,136 casualties (486 killed and 1,650 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: 8,258 casualties (2,857 killed and 5,401 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 and numbers 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 26 December 2022) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 27 December 2022 to 2 January 2023 only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 27 December 2022 to 2 January 2023 have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.