UN says 1,119 civilians have been killed in Ukraine war
By Jesús Jiménez
More than 1,100 civilians have been killed since the war began in Ukraine, the United Nations High Commissioner for human rights said in a report Sunday.
The 1,119 civilians confirmed dead include 99 children, according to the report. Another 1,790 civilians have been injured, including 126 children, the U.N. said.
The report noted that the U.N. believes the actual figures of deaths and injuries are “considerably higher,” but that ongoing fighting has delayed receipt of some information and that other reports are still being confirmed. (For that reason the casualty toll does not include the besieged city of Mariupol.) The U.N. noted a report from Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office that said 139 children have been killed and at least 205 have been injured.
Most of the deaths and injuries were caused by the use of explosive weapons that can impact a wide area, such as shelling from heavy artillery, missiles and airstrikes, according to the report.
In an address Saturday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine said Russian forces were deliberately killing civilians and targeting residential areas, shelters, educational facilities and churches.
“Russian troops receive just such orders: to destroy everything,” Zelenskyy said in a translation of his remarks shared by his office. “No one will forgive them. There will be responsibility.”
Russia has denied its military has purposely targeted civilians.
An estimated $63 billion in Ukrainian infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed as of March 24, Ukraine’s parliament said in a Twitter post Sunday. The losses include more than 4,400 residential buildings, 138 health care facilities, eight civilian airports and 378 education institutions. The cost was calculated by the Kyiv School of Economics.