In the first eight months of 2026, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights verified 15,280 civilians killed and injured in Ukraine. That is 55% more than in the same period of 2025, and an average of more than 400 people a week.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk announced the figures on 2 October at a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva. In his words, the war in Ukraine is “a human rights catastrophe that is growing and intensifying by the week, causing unfathomable pain to civilians and threatening an even greater disaster across the entire region.”
According to the OHCHR, at least 2,222 of those affected were killed and another 13,058 were injured. July and August were the deadliest months: in July at least 448 civilians were confirmed killed and 2,675 injured; in August, 372 were killed and 2,349 injured.
Türk separately pointed to a rise in casualties from Russian guided aerial bombs. From January to August, in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy and Zaporizhzhia regions, they killed or injured nearly 2,500 civilians — 62% more than in the same period of 2025. The front line, in the commissioner’s assessment, remained relatively static, while strikes continued to hit apartment buildings, schools, medical facilities, shops and railway infrastructure.
The commissioner also referred to his office’s report on conflict-related sexual violence: of more than 1,000 documented cases, 89% were attributed to the Russian authorities and 11% to the Ukrainian side. He called for the war to end immediately, in line with the UN Charter and international law.
