The number of civilian casualties in Ukraine increased sharply in 2025, says UN observer | Russia-Ukraine War

Russia’s increased use of long-range weapons has caused more casualties in Ukraine, according to a United Nations observer.

Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022, as the number of casualties soared amid escalating hostilities along the front line and Russia’s increased use of long-range weapons, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said.

In a report released Monday, the UN monitor said that “the total number of civilian casualties in Ukraine in 2025 reached at least 2,514 killed and 12,142 injured, an increase of 31 percent compared to 2024… and an increase of 70 percent compared to 2023.”

The vast majority of Russian-Ukrainian war casualties verified by the watchdog occurred on territory controlled by the Ukrainian government as a result of attacks launched by Russian armed forces, the report said.

The Russian armed forces’ increased efforts to capture territory in 2025 have led to civilian deaths and injuries, destruction of vital infrastructure, shutdown of essential services and new waves of displacement in frontline areas, the monitor said.

Nearly two-thirds of all casualties last year occurred in frontline areas, with older people particularly affected as they remained in their villages. Civilian casualties caused by short-range drones have also increased sharply, the statement added.

“[But our] Monitoring shows that this increase is due not only to the intensification of hostilities along the front line, but also to the increased use of long-range weapons, which exposes civilians across the country to increased risks,” said Danielle Bell, head of the UN monitoring mission, in a press release attached to the report.

Hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides are believed to have been injured or killed in Europe’s deadliest war since World War II, although neither side releases complete figures.

The UN has verified nearly 15,000 civilian deaths, it says in the report, but adds that “the true extent of harm to civilians… is likely considerably higher” because it is impossible to verify many cases and there is no access to areas that have fallen under Russian occupation.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians were killed in 2022, the first year of the war, during a prolonged Russian siege of the port of Mariupol and assaults on towns before the front line hardened.

Since then, Moscow has continued to use missiles and drones to strike Ukrainian cities. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, but says its attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure are justified because they hamper the war effort.

Ukraine also targets civilian infrastructure in Russia and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine, but on a much smaller scale.

Separately, in Russia, the UN observer noted that Russian authorities reported that attacks by Ukrainian armed forces killed 253 civilians and injured 1,872 people in the Russian Federation last year. Due to lack of access and limited publicly available information, the watchdog could not verify these figures, it added.

In February, the war will enter its fifth year. But the question of territorial concessions remains a major sticking point.

Last November, US President Donald Trump unveiled a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that involved Kyiv ceding not only large amounts of land occupied by Russia during nearly four years of war, but also some territory that kyiv’s forces currently control.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, has repeatedly stated that this is unacceptable for Ukraine.

U.S.-led diplomatic attempts to end the war have also stalled, with Russia last week rejecting a proposed plan that would see European countries deploy soldiers to Ukraine once the war ends.