civilian casualty update 15 May 2023: Ukraine

OHCHR

From 24 February 2022, which marked the start of the large-scale armed attack by the Russian Federation, to 14 May 2023, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) recorded 23,821 civilian casualties in the country: 8,836 killed and 14,985 injured. This included:

  • 19,175 casualties (6,860 killed and 12,315 injured) in territory controlled by the Government when casualties occurred:
    • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 9,699 casualties (4,022 killed and 5,677 injured); and
    • In other regions1: 9,476 casualties (2,838 killed and 6,638 injured).
  • 4,646 casualties (1,976 killed and 2,670 injured) in territory occupied by the Russian Federation when casualties occurred:
    • In Donetsk and Luhansk regions: 3,113 casualties (697 killed and 2,416 injured); and
    • In other regions2: 1,533 casualties (1,279 killed and 254 injured).

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 14 May 2023(individual cases verified by OHCHR)

From 1 to 14 May 2023, OHCHR recorded 424 civilian casualties in Ukraine:

  • 93 killed (54 men, 26 women, 2 boys, 1 girl, as well as 10 adults whose sex is not yet known); and
  • 331 injured (119 men, 79 women, 9 boys, 6 girls, as well as 118 adults whose sex is not yet known).

This included:

  • 79 killed and 282 injured in 102 settlements in territory controlled by the Government when casualties occurred (85 percent of the total); and
  • 14 killed and 49 injured in 9 settlements in territory occupied by the Russian Federation when casualties occurred (15 percent of the total).

Per type of weapon/incident:

  • Explosive weapons with wide area effects: 83 killed and 307 injured (92 per cent);
  • Mines and explosive remnants of war: 10 killed and 24 injured (8 per cent).

[1] An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 7 May 2023) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred from 8 to 14 May only, as during these days OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days. Similarly, not all civilian casualties that were reported from 8 to 14 May have been included into the above figures. Some of them are still pending corroboration and if confirmed, will be reported on in future updates.

[2] 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.

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