Between 24 February morning and midnight last night, our Office has recorded 536 civilian casualties in Ukraine. These include 136 civilians killed, of whom 13 were children, and 400 civilians injured, among them 26 children. Most of these casualties were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, and air strikes. These are only the casualties we were able to cross-check, and the real toll is likely to be much higher.
As the High Commissioner has stressed, the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects should be avoided in populated areas, due to the very high risks of indiscriminate and disproportionate impact on civilians.
We stress the urgent need for an immediate cessation of hostilities.
