By KYIV. Dec 20 (Interfax-Ukraine) – Civilian casualties from February 24, when Russia launched a war against Ukraine, to December 18 amounted to 17,595 civilians (a week earlier some 17,362), including 6,826 dead (6,755), the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said.
"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," according to the document on UN data.
This concerns, for example, Mariupol (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Lysychansk, Popasna, and Sievierodonetsk (Luhansk region), where there are allegations of numerous civilian casualties .
According to confirmed UN figures, some 2,686 men, 1,822 women, 216 boys and 174 girls died, while the gender of 38 children and 1,890 adults has not yet been determined.
Among the 10,769 injured were 314 boys and 224 girls, as well as 252 children whose gender has not yet been determined.
If earlier the OHCHR report on the number of casualties was published daily, and then only on weekdays, since July it has become a weekly one. In this summary, as in the previous one, the data are given by months.
According to them, March remains the deadliest month for civilians, with a minimum of 3,347 deaths. In April, according to an OHCHR publication, the number of civilian deaths due to the war fell to 705, in May to 473, in June to 374 and in July to 360. In the first five days of the war, from 24 to 28 February, 358 people died, for August some 305, for September some 330, for October some 287, for November some 164 and for the first 19 days of December some 123, the UN said.
The number of wounded in December and November also decreased significantly, to 339 and 526, respectively, while in October there were 787. In September, it amounted to 934, which was higher than in August some 895 and slightly lower than in previous months: 1030, May some 1,021, while in April and March, respectively, some 1,257 and 2,414 people were injured.
According to the report, in December, 106 people were killed and 320 injured by explosive weapons with a wide area of effect, while mines and explosive remnants of war killed 17 people and injured 19 people (8% of the total casualties).
Government-controlled territories accounted for 81% of the victims in December, according to the UN.
The summary has traditionally stated that the increase in figures from the previous summary should not be attributed only to cases after December 11, since during this period the Office verified a number of cases from previous days.
