Kyiv, 10 September – In August, short-range drone strikes caused more civilian casualties in Ukraine than any other weapon, killing 58 civilians and injuring 272, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said today. A new HRMMU report covering August 2025 indicates that around 72% of all casualties occurred near the frontline, primarily in Donetsk and Kherson regions.
In addition to intensifying frontline attacks, the use of long-range weapons (missiles and loitering munitions) against areas far from the frontline significantly increased in 2025, with the trend continuing in September after a pause in August.
“The temporary pause in long-range attacks during early August provided only brief relief to urban areas, while civilian casualties in frontline regions remained consistently high,” said Danielle Bell, who heads HRMMU. “Early September brought renewed attacks, with the Russian Federation reportedly deploying record numbers of missiles and drones.”
During the attack on 6–7 September, Russian armed forces reportedly deployed 810 loitering munitions and 13 powerful missiles, marking the highest number of munitions used in a single attack since 24 February 2022. The strike affected multiple regions across the country, resulting in at least 5 civilians killed and 41 injured in 6 regions and Kyiv city.
In August 2025, attacks on energy infrastructure, particularly gas facilities, intensified, with at least nine incidents documented in areas controlled by the Government of Ukraine. The month also saw strikes on other critical infrastructure, including powerful airstrikes on Korabelnyi bridge in Kherson city—vital for civilian movement and logistics—which triggered evacuations.
“These attacks risk disrupting essential services and compounding civilian hardship, especially as winter approaches,” Bell noted.
Throughout 2025, civilian harm has risen sharply, with total casualties in the first eight months of the year increasing by 40% compared to 2024. Civilian deaths rose by 17%, while civilian injuries surged by 46%.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation in Ukraine on 24 February 2022, HRMMU has documented at least 14,116 civilians killed, including 733 children, and 36,481 injured, including 2,285 children.
