From 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation's armed attack against Ukraine started, to 9 January 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 18,096 civilian casualties in the country: 6,952 killed and 11,144 injured. This included:
- a total of 6,952 killed (2,758 men, 1,857 women, 176 girls, and 220 boys, as well as 35 children and 1,906 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
- a total of 11,144 injured (2,425 men, 1,739 women, 234 girls, and 322 boys, as well as 254 children and 6,170 adults whose sex is yet unknown)
"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 said.
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), Izyum (Kharkiv Region), Lysychansk, Popasna, and Syevyerodonetsk (Luhansk Region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties.
From 1 to 9 January 2023, OHCHR recorded 135 civilian casualties.