Kyiv, 16 February – Nearly four years after the Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) warns of mounting violations and growing risks to civilians. A fact sheet issued today underscores a consistent deterioration in human rights and civilian protection nationwide.
“The situation has demonstrably worsened,” Danielle Bell, Head of HRMMU, said. “More people are killed and injured each year. Millions have only a few hours of electricity per day. Hundreds of thousands are suffering without heating in freezing temperatures. Serious violations of international humanitarian law continue unabated, and Russian authorities are manifestly ignoring international law in the parts of Ukraine they occupy.”
The number of civilians killed and injured daily in Ukraine has increased, HRMMU reported. In 2025, the total number of civilian casualties was 31 per cent higher than in 2024 and 70 per cent higher than in 2023. HRMMU has verified that conflict-related violence has killed more than 15,000 people and injured more than 41,000 since February 2022, the vast majority in territory controlled by Ukraine. Each of these numbers represents a person whose life has been lost or harmed, leaving families and communities in grief.
An intensification of attacks by Russian armed forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since October 2025 has damaged and destroyed key infrastructure, creating prolonged disruptions to electricity, heating, and water across the country. Attacks in January targeted district heating infrastructure, cutting heating to thousands of high-rise apartment buildings as temperatures plunged below 20 degrees Celsius.
Serious violations of international humanitarian law continue to be committed with impunity, particularly by Russian authorities, including widespread and systematic use of torture and ill-treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war and civilian detainees, as well as sexual violence and executions. HRMMU documented a recent spike in reported executions of captured Ukrainian soldiers in November and December 2025.
HRMMU has also documented that Ukrainian authorities have subjected prisoners of war to torture and ill-treatment in the initial stages of capture before they reached official internment facilities. Investigations into these violations have yielded little progress.
In occupied territory, Russian authorities are unlawfully consolidating control by implementing the laws and systems of governance of the Russian Federation, compelling residents to obtain Russian citizenship, and restricting freedom of expression through administrative fines and criminal convictions.
HRMMU called for increased efforts to hold perpetrators to account for violations.
“The Russian Federation’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine four years ago has resulted in a horrifically long list of violations of both international human rights and humanitarian law,” Bell emphasized. “So far, however, we have seen virtually no efforts to prevent such violations or hold perpetrators to account. Victims must have a right to a remedy: access to justice, reparation for the harm they have suffered, and to learn the truth in regard to these violations.”
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine was deployed in March 2014 to monitor and publicly report on the human rights situation in Ukraine. The Mission publishes thematic and periodic reports on the human rights situation as well as regular updates on civilian harm from hostilities. All reports can be found at: https://ukraine.ohchr.org/en.
