According to a United Nations report, Ukraine’s civilian casualties from Russian missile attacks rose five times in 2025.
In the first five months of 2025, Ukraine suffered at least 1,389 casualties, including 221 killed and 1,168 injured, marking a five-fold increase from casualties in the same period last year, as per a report from the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
For many weeks, Russia has attacked Ukraine with hundreds of drones and missiles on a near-daily basis. After months of slow progress, the Russian ground offensive has also picked up pace in recent weeks—even as Ukraine has repeatedly struck deep inside Russia and dealt significant blows.
Since the first invasion of Ukraine in 2014, Russia has captured 20 percent of Ukrainian territories, including vast swathes of four regions after the 2022 invasion—Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
Danielle Bell, Head of Mission for the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, stated that the timing of Russian airstrikes “alone made the high number of civilian casualties entirely foreseeable.
” She explained, “The attacks struck during the day when civilians were at work, on trains, or at school.” Bell further noted, “This year has been devastating for civilians across Ukraine, with significantly more deaths and injuries than during the same period in 2024. The intensification of long-range attacks with missiles and loitering munitions and frequent attacks with short-range drones along the frontline are a deadly combination for civilians.”
