UN: More Than 1,000 Civilians Killed Since Ukraine Invasion, True Figure “Considerably Higher”

On Thursday the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) revised its official tally of civilian deaths since the Russian invasion of Ukraine that started on Feb.24, saying civilian deaths now exceeded 1,000 – with total casualties of 2,685 – as the war has reached one month.

But the office warned that “the actual figures are considerably higher” – in a statement, which described that “Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.”

In total the UN body says that 1,035 civilian deaths have been recorded, including “214 men, 160 women, 14 girls, and 28 boys, as well as 48 children and 571 adults whose sex is yet unknown.”

And injuries were said to be at least 1,650 civilians since the start of the invasion. OHCHR in its March 24 report broke down the casualty count according to the following:

a total of 1,650 injured (181 men, 140 women, 28 girls, and 23 boys, as well as 67 children and 1,211 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 1,168 casualties (311 killed and 857 injured)
On Government-controlled territory: 901 casualties (255 killed and 646 injured)
On territory controlled by the self-proclaimed ‘republics’: 267 casualties (56 killed and 211 injured)
In other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Zhytomyr regions), which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 1,517 casualties (724 killed and 793 injured)

The report explained that “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 and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Sievierodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), and Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties,” the report added.

In Mariupol alone for example, which has been under siege by Russian forces since close to the start of the invasion, the mayor’s office and Ukraine state sources have said that multiple thousands of civilians have been killed at this point – though official numbers are nearly impossible to verify under the current wartime conditions.