By Emma Farge
GENEVA (Reuters) -More than 12,300 civilians have been killed in the Ukraine war since Russia invaded nearly three years ago, a U.N. official told a U.N. meeting on Wednesday, noting a spike in casualties due to the use of drones, long-range missiles and glide bombs.
Russia, which is making territorial gains in Ukraine’s east, has conducted regular attacks on faraway cities in recent months using such weapons. This contributed to a 30% rise in civilian deaths to 574 in Ukraine between September-November 2024 compared to the previous year, according to U.N. data.
In total, the United Nations deputy human rights chief Nada Al-Nashif said more than 12,300 civilians had been killed in Ukraine including 650 children – although the U.N. has repeatedly said its tally is an undercount since it only includes deaths its teams have managed to verify.
“Russian armed forces intensified their operations to capture further territory in eastern Ukraine, with a severe impact on civilians in frontline areas …,” she told a meeting of the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva.
“We are deeply concerned by the impacts on civilians of the increased use of drones and the use of new weapons,” she added, saying Russia had used 2,000 long-range drones in November.
These examples of increasing gross violations of international human rights law may represent war crimes, Al-Nashif told the Council.
Russia’s delegate senior counsellor Evgeniy Ustinov said the report was biased and that it whitewashed Kyiv’s crimes. Moscow has denied committing atrocities or targeting civilians in Ukraine since the war began in February 2022.
Ukraine’s ambassador Yevheniia Filipenko described Russia’s recent actions against it as “calculated, cruel and designed to inflict maximum pain and destruction”.
Among the civilian deaths the U.N. documented were 35 deaths that occurred in Ukrainian-controlled parts of Kherson by video-piloted drones between September-November 2024. Such drones, also known as first person view drones, carry cameras to allow operators to distinguish between civilians and combatants on their screens.
Some civilians have also killed in the Kursk region of Russia where Ukrainian troops have intensified an offensive that began in August, Al-Nashif said, citing Russian reports.
U.N. human rights monitors do not tally casualties from Russia due to lack of access to the country and limited publicly available information.
(Reporting by Emma Farge; Editing by Thomas Seythal and Alison Williams)
