4 March 2022

Between 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s military action against Ukraine started, and 24:00 on 3 March 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 1,006 civilian casualties in the country: 331 killed and 675 injured.

• Total of ​331 killed in Ukraine (71 men, 40 women, 7 boys, and 3 girls, as well as 9 children and 201 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• Total of 675 injured (51 men, 40 women, 9 girls, and 2 boys, as well as 20 children and 553 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
• Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 440 casualties (77 killed and 363 injured)
• Government-controlled territory: 331 (54 killed and 277 injured)
• Territory controlled by the self-proclaimed ‘republics’: 109 (23 killed and 86 injured)
• Other regions of Ukraine (the city of Kyiv, and Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Odesa, Sumy, Zaporizhzhia, and Zhytomyr regions) in places, which were under Government control when casualties occurred: 566 casualties (254 killed and 312 injured)

Most of civilian casualties recorded from 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022 until 12 midnight on 3 March 2022 were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes.

The figures could rise considerably further, especially in Government-controlled territory, as the receipt of information from some locations where intensive hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration. This concerns, for example, the town of Volnovakha (Government-controlled part of Donetsk region) where hundreds of civilian casualties have been alleged. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics.

On 1 March, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine said that 16 children had been killed since 24 February.

According to the Adviser – Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for the Rights of the Child and Children’s Rehabilitation, as of 4 March, 28 children had been killed and 64 injured in Government-controlled territory.

OHCHR also notes a report by the Ministry of Emergencies of Ukraine according to which as of 09.00 (Kyiv time) 4 March, the total number of civilian casualties in Kharkiv region was 39 killed and 272 injured, including 10 children.

The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission

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 andnumbersmaychangeasnewinformationemergesovertime.

Since 24 February 2022, in the context of the Russian Federation’s military action in Ukraine, HRMMU has been unable to visit places of incidents and interview victims and witnesses there. All other sources of information have been extensively used, including HRMMU contact persons and partners in places where civilian casualties occurred. 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.

The use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area should be avoided in densely populated areas, due to the significant likelihood of indiscriminate effects. Weapons with a wide impact area include: a) munitions with a large destructive radius, such as large bombs or missiles; b) weapons that tend to have an inaccurate delivery system, such as unguided indirect fire weapons, including artillery and mortars; and c) weapons designed to deliver munitions over a wide area, such as multi-launch rocket systems and cluster munitions.

ENDS

Russian and Ukrainian language versions of this update as they become available, please visit this page.

For more information and media requests, please contact:
Liz Throssell + 41 22 917 9296 / elizabeth.throssell@un.org or
Lori Brumat +41 22 928 91 49 / lori.brumat@un.org
Ravina Shamdasani + 41 22 917 9169 / ravina.shamdasani@un.org

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