More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022, with about half of recent deaths occurring far behind the front lines, the United Nations Human Rights Office said on Tuesday.
The UN human rights mission in Ukraine, which has dozens of monitors in the country, said it expects the real toll to be “significantly higher” than the official tally since corroboration work is ongoing.
This includes events in the first months after the invasion, such as the battle for control of Mariupol, where residents reported high civilian casualties.
“Ten thousand civilian deaths is a grim milestone for Ukraine,” said Danielle Bell, who heads the monitoring mission.
“The Russian Federation’s war against Ukraine, now entering into its 21st month, risks evolving into a protracted conflict, with the severe human cost being painful to fathom,” she said.
The vast majority of the deaths have been caused by explosive weapons with a wide-area impact such as shells, missiles and cluster munitions, the UN said.
Close to half of the deaths in the last three months have occurred far beyond the front lines, the UN said, attributing this to Russian forces’ use of long-range missiles and the late explosion of abandoned ordinances.
Older people who may be unable or unwilling to relocate to safer places make up a disproportionate fraction of those killed in Ukraine, the UN data showed.
More than a third of the victims whose ages were confirmed were over 60, it showed, whereas this age group constitutes just a quarter of the total population.
Moscow denies deliberately targeting civilians.
As the fighting continued, the regional governor of Odesa in Ukraine said Russian forces hit port infrastructure in thee southern city of on Tuesday evening.
Russia has recently stepped up its attacks on port infrastructure on the Danube river and the Black Sea after it withdrew in July from a UN-brokered deal that guaranteed safe shipments of Ukrainian grain.
“The invaders hit the port infrastructure of Odesa. People were not injured,” governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram messenger.
Russia used Х-31 missiles, the southern military command said on Telegram.
It also reported strikes on the Belhorod-Dniester district in the region, with missiles hitting open surface and administrative buildings.
The export deal brokered by the United Nations and Turkey collapsed as Russia declined to recognise it, saying its demand that sanctions be lifted on its grain and fertiliser exports had not been met.
Ukraine has since opened what it says is a humanitarian corridor in a bid to break Russia’s de facto blockade and accused Moscow of targeting this route as well.
Elsewhere on Tuesday, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy and European Council chief Charles Michel warned on Tuesday that a European Union meeting next month to decide whether to begin formal accession talks for Kyiv would be difficult.
Michel, who visited Kyiv on a surprise trip, told a joint news conference with Mr Zelenskiy and Moldovan president Maia Sandu who hopes accession talks for Moldova will also be approved, that he would work to overcome those challenges.
“For us, the decision in December is a motivational one, the decision that mobilises. I think this is the decision which will help Ukraine to believe that there is justice,” Mr Zelenskiy told reporters.
Mr Zelenskiy warned at the news conference that a lack of unity within the EU on the decision to launch formal talks would also raise questions on other issues including vital financial aid for Ukraine as well as sanctions on Russia.
“All these are big challenges for everyone and already not only for Ukraine, but a challenge for preserving the unity of the European Union,” he said.
The decision is due to be considered at a December 14th-15th summit.
“It will be a difficult meeting but I do not intend to give up,” Mr Michel said, adding that the world needed a strong European Union to ensure stability and prosperity.
Mr Michel’s visit came as Ukraine marks 10 years since the start of mass protests that toppled a Moscow-backed president and set Kyiv on a resolute pro-western course.
Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine is in its 21st month and Ukraine’s efforts to retake nearly a fifth of its territory which is occupied by Moscow has not delivered the breakthrough that many Ukrainians had wanted. Concerns have also been growing over the sustainability of supplies of billions of dollars of vital western economic and military assistance.
Mr Michel praised Ukraine’s progress as “remarkable”. He told reporters he would do everything to persuade all 27 bloc members to support the launch of talks with Ukraine and Moldova.
German defence minister Boris Pistorius, also on a trip to Kyiv, announced a new military aid package of €1.3 billion that will include four additional IRIS-T air defence systems.
Ukraine, which gained independence from Soviet Moscow in 1991, marks a Day of Dignity and Freedom on Tuesday to commemorate its two pro-western, pro-democratic revolutions in 2004 and 2014.
The 2014 revolution, which the Kremlin casts as a foreign-sponsored coup, prompted Russian troops to seize and annex the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea and back a militant insurrection in the east. – Reuters