Ukraine: civilian casualty update 13 February 2023

Date: 13 February 2023¹

From 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 12 February 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 18,955 civilian casualties in the country: 7,199 killed and 11,756 injured. This included:

• a total of 7,199 killed (2,888 men, 1,941 women, 226 boys , and 180 girls, as well as 32 children and 1,932 adults whose sex is not yet known)
• a total of 11,756 injured (2,616 men, 1,856 women, 341 boys, and 253 girls, as well as 260 children and 6,430 adults whose sex is not yet known)
  • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 10,167 casualties (4,189 killed and 5,978 injured)
    • On Government-controlled territory: 7,946 casualties (3,679 killed and 4,267 injured)
    • On territory controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups: 2,221 casualties (510 killed and 1,711 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, Lviv, Poltava, Rivne, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Volyn, and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 8,788 casualties (3,010 killed and 5,778 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), Lysychansk, Popasna, and Sievierodonetsk (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.
Civilian casualties from 1 to 12 February 2023(individual cases verified by OHCHR)
From 1 to 12 February 2023, OHCHR recorded 262 civilian casualties:

• 59 killed (28 men, 19 women, as well as 12 adults whose sex is not yet known); and
• 203 injured (63 men, 43 women, 5 boys, 6 girls, as well as 86 adults whose sex is not yet known).

This included:

• 49 killed and 187 injured in 64 settlements in regions (parts of regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred (90 percent of the total); and
• 10 killed and 16 injured in 5 settlements in parts of Luhansk and Donetsk regions controlled by Russian armed forces and affiliated armed groups (10 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

• Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 54 killed and 186 injured (92 per cent);
• Mines and explosive remnants of war: 5 killed and 17 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 5 February 2023) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 6 to 12 February only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 6 to 12 February have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.