The report cites human rights and humanitarian law violations since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, a decade marked by systematic efforts to impose Russian rule on the peninsula.
On 24 February 2022, Russian armed forces launched a full-scale armed attack on Ukraine. In the two years since, the civilian population in Ukraine has endured immense suffering and harm. Thousands of civilians have lost their lives or sustained life-changing injuries – or have family members who have done so. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has verified that conflict-related violence in this two-year period killed more than 10,000 civilians and injured nearly 20,000. The actual numbers are likely significantly higher.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission verified that at least 641 civilians were killed or injured in Ukraine in January 2024, continuing a trend from December 2023 of increasing civilian casualties. Verified civilian casualties in January were 37 per cent higher than in November 2023.
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission verified that at least 592 civilians were killed or injured in Ukraine in December 2023. This constitutes a 26.5 per cent increase in verified civilian casualties compared with the previous month. The number of reported civilian casualties, some of which are still pending verification, suggest that the increase was even higher. The increase in civilian casualties in December breaks a trend of decreasing numbers of civilian casualties in 2023.
This thirty-seventh report by the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) on the human rights situation in Ukraine covers the period from 1 August to 30 November 2023. It is based on the work of the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.