Civilian death toll in Ukraine tops grim 10,000 mark: UN body

Emergency workers load a body of a local resident, who was killed during a rocket attack, into a car in the village of Tsyrkuny, Kharkiv region, Ukraine, Thursday, May 18, 2023. (Andrii Marienko)

More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia's offensive started in February 2022, with about half of recent deaths occurring far behind the front lines, said the UN Human Rights Office.

The UN human rights mission in Ukraine, which has dozens of monitors in the country, said on Tuesday it expects the real toll to be "significantly higher" than the official tally since corroboration work is ongoing.

This includes events in the first months after the invasion, such as the battle for control of Mariupol, where residents reported high civilian casualties.

"Ten thousand civilian deaths is a grim milestone for Ukraine," said Danielle Bell, who heads the monitoring mission.

"The Russian Federation's war against Ukraine, now entering into its 21st month, risks evolving into a protracted conflict, with the severe human cost being painful to fathom," she said.

'Deaths beyond the frontlines'

The vast majority of the deaths have been caused by explosive weapons with a wide-area impact such as shells, missiles and cluster munitions, the United Nations said.

Close to half of the deaths in the last three months have occurred far beyond the front lines, the UN said, attributing this to Russian forces' use of long-range missiles and the late explosion of abandoned ordinances.

Older people who may be unable or unwilling to relocate to safer places make up a disproportionate fraction of those killed in Ukraine, the UN data showed.

More than a third of the victims whose ages were confirmed were over 60, it showed, whereas this age group constitutes just a quarter of the total population.

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Source: TRT