UN: 2025 deadliest year for civilians in Ukraine since 2022
The year 2025 was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022.
This was reported by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), according to Ukrinform.
In its monthly report on civilian harm, the HRMMU confirmed that conflict-related violence in Ukraine in 2025 resulted in the deaths of 2,514 civilians and injuries to 12,142 others. The total number of civilian casualties (killed and wounded) in 2025 was 31% higher than in 2024 (2,088 killed; 9,138 wounded) and 70% higher than in 2023 (1,974 killed; 6,651 wounded).
The overwhelming majority of civilian casualties confirmed by the HRMMU in 2025 occurred in territory controlled by the Government of Ukraine as a result of attacks carried out by the Russian armed forces (97%; 2,395 killed and 11,751 wounded).
“The 31 per cent increase in civilian casualties compared with 2024 represents a marked deterioration in the protection of civilians. Our monitoring shows that this rise was driven not only by intensified hostilities along the frontline, but also by the expanded use of long-range weapons, which exposed civilians across the country to heightened risk,” said Danielle Bell, Head of the HRMMU.
The UN also noted that 63% of all casualties in 2025 occurred in frontline areas. “Older persons were particularly affected, as they constitute a large portion of those remaining in frontline villages. HRMMU documented that individuals aged 60 years and above accounted for over 45 percent (742 killed) of civilians killed in frontline areas in 2025, despite representing only 25 percent of the national population,” the report said.
The mission noted that the use of short-range drones near the front line caused a significant number of civilian casualties: 577 people were killed and 3,288 injured – a 120% increase compared with 2024.
“The expanded use of short-range drones has rendered many areas near the frontline effectively uninhabitable,” Bell said.
The HRMMU stressed that the massive increase in the use of long-range weapons by Russian forces, which began in June 2025, also led to greater harm to civilians in cities across Ukraine.
“Long-range weapons (missiles and loitering munitions) caused 35 per cent of civilian casualties in Ukraine in 2025 (682 killed and 4,443 injured), a 65 per cent increase in killed and injured compared with 2024 (531 killed and 2,569 injured),” the report said.
On July 31, long-range weapons strikes carried out by Russia in Kyiv killed 32 civilians, including five children, and injured 170 people, among them 17 children. This was the highest confirmed number of civilian casualties in the capital since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
In October 2025, Russian armed forces resumed large-scale coordinated strikes on energy facilities across the country, resulting in emergency power outages and the introduction of scheduled blackouts.
“The sharp increase in long-range attacks and the targeting of Ukraine’s national energy infrastructure mean that the consequences of the war are now felt by civilians far beyond the frontline. With temperatures now down to minus 15 degrees Celsius, disruptions to electricity, water and heating are placing civilians across the country at heightened risk,” Bell said.
As reported by Ukrinform, according to Eurostat data as of November 30, 2025, a total of 4.33 million people who left Ukraine after the start of the full-scale war had received temporary protection status in the EU. Compared with the end of October 2025, this number increased by 30,615.