Geneva (EFE) the non-military population, in a year of conflict.
“Our data is just the tip of the iceberg in a war whose cost to civilians is unbearable,” said the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Türk, in a statement.
His office, which has tracked civilian casualties since the start of the Russian invasion, released an annual report on Thursday noting that at least 487 of the civilian deaths were minors.
According to that report, 40% of the victims (dead and wounded) whose sex is known were women, although it acknowledges that the real number could be much higher since there are no complete data on the effects of the war in towns hard hit by the conflict such as Mariúpol, Lisichansk, Popasna or Severodonetsk, among others.
Donetsk, Kharkov and kyiv, the most affected
By region, Donetsk is by far the area where the UN has confirmed the most civilian deaths (3,800) and injuries (6,600), followed by Kharkov (924 deaths and 2,000 wounded) and Kiev and surroundings (955 dead and 312 wounded). ).
The United Nations office also records two deaths in the area of Poland bordering Ukraine (victims of a Ukrainian missile that hit the area in November) and 30 deaths and more than one hundred injuries in areas of Russia bordering on Ukrainian territory (regions of Belgorod, Kursk and Briansk).
The month of March of last year was the one that left the most civilian victims, with more than 3,900 deaths and 2,900 confirmed injuries, and since then the number has been progressively reduced, to around 200 per month between November 2022 and January 2023.
The report highlights that 90% of civilian deaths and injuries have been victims of high-impact explosive weapons (such as missiles), mostly in attacks on populated areas, with at least 6,585 deaths and 12,635 injuries.
84% of these attacks occurred in areas controlled by the Ukrainian government and 15% in territory occupied by Russian forces, indicated the study by the United Nations office.
As of today, at least six people have been killed in a Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine retaken by Kiev forces late last year.
As announced by the Ukrainian public television, there were at least 20 explosions and one of the attacks hit a bus stop.
Weapons that kill after a conflict
It also highlights a sharp increase in 2022 in civilian casualties (202 dead and 369 wounded) due to antipersonnel mines, remains of weapons and explosions of ammunition depots, which have caused deaths since the start of the armed conflict between Russia and Ukraine over Donbas in 2014.
“Violations of human rights and international law continue every day, and it becomes more and more difficult to find a way out of the growing suffering and destruction, a way out that leads to peace,” said Türk, who visited Ukraine in December, commenting on these figures.
The high commissioner also recalled that the conflict has left 18 million people in desperate need of humanitarian assistance, while some 14 million have left their homes, either to flee within Ukrainian territory as internally displaced persons or outside it as refugees.
“The war has affected the youngest, whose learning has been affected or has been stopped by the attacks on educational facilities, but also the oldest and the disabled,” Türk said.
The Austrian high commissioner stressed that many of those who have stayed in war-affected areas are older people who are unable or unwilling to leave such dangerous areas.
