Russia's massive wave of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine over the past several weeks has caused an abrupt rise in civilian casualties, reversing a downward trend observed earlier last year, the United Nations says in a new report.
The report by the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said that in December alone, 101 Ukrainian civilians were killed and 491 were wounded in Russian strikes, amounting a 26.5 percent month-on-month increase in verified casualties. HRMMU said the actual figure is believed to be higher, as many reported cases are still pending verification.
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"The December increase in civilian casualties was mainly due to intensified missile and loitering munitions attacks by Russian armed forces across Ukraine on 29 and 30 December. Attacks with these types of weapons accounted for 34 percent of civilian casualties in December compared with 16 percent in November," the report said.
Danielle Bell, the head of the HRMMU, said the wave of attacks in late December and early January have reversed a downward trend observed in 2023.
"These attacks sow death and destruction on Ukraine's civilians who have endured profound losses from Russia's full-scale invasion for almost two years now," Bell said.
The intensified wave of missile and drone strikes caused the largest number of casualties among civilians on December 29 and January 2, with the HRMMU saying it is currently verifying reports that 86 people may have been killed and 416 being wounded during that interval.
Heavy Russian strikes continued after January 2, the UN mission said, highlighting a missile attack on the small town of Pokrovsk and nearby Rivne village on January 6 in the eastern region of Donetsk close to the front line.
The attack left two families -- six adults and five children -- buried under the rubble after their homes were struck. Some of the bodies are still missing, despite days of frantic efforts by rescue teams, the UN said.
In another incident, in Novomoskovsk in the Dnipropetrovsk region, a Russian missile strike on January 8 wounded 31 civilians, including eight passengers of a minibus during the morning commute, the UN said.
Since the start of Russia's unprovoked invasion of Ukraine, the total number of verified civilian casualties has risen to 29,330 -- 10,191 people killed and 19,139 wounded, the HRMMU report said.
The UN humanitarian office’s operations director, Edem Wosornu, told the UN Security Council on January 10 that at least 575 children have been confirmed killed since the start of the invasion.