“From 4 a.m. on 24 February 2022, when the Russian Federation’s armed attack against Ukraine started, to 24:00 midnight on 19 March 2022 (local time), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 2,361 civilian casualties in the country: 902 killed and 1,459 injured,” reads the OHCHR’s press release.
In particular, a total of 902 people were killed (179 men, 134 women, 11 girls, and 25 boys, as well as 39 children and 514 adults whose sex is yet unknown).
A total of 1,459 people were injured (156 men, 117 women, 22 girls, and 16 boys, as well as 60 children and 1,088 adults whose sex is yet unknown).
As noted, 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.
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. 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.
On February 24, Russian president Vladimir Putin launched a large-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops simultaneously crossed Ukraine’s borders from the north, the east, and Crimea. They destroy cities, towns, and villages, shell and ruin key infrastructure, residential buildings, kill civilians, and commit crimes against humanity.
Martial law was imposed in Ukraine and general mobilization was announced.
