The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) reported on Wednesday that attacks across Ukraine over the past two days have caused significant civilian casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure, including in large urban centers such as Kyiv and Odesa, which lie farther from the front line. These attacks follow a weekend that saw scores of civilian casualties.
Attacks in Kyiv City have continued for six consecutive days, including a missile strike on a railway depot on Tuesday that killed six Ukrainian Railways workers. Many schoolchildren began the new school year in shelters yesterday.
The Humanitarian Coordinator for Ukraine, Matthias Schmale, underscored the growing toll of attacks on civilians, noting that the pattern of strikes on shopping malls, warehouses, and railway and energy infrastructure has expanded. Schmale stressed that such attacks must never be normalized.
According to Ukrainian authorities, nearly 30 civilians have been killed and more than 140 others have been injured in attacks since Monday. Kyiv, the capital city, and its surrounding region were among the hardest hit, with at least 12 people killed and more than 30 injured, including several children. In the city of Odesa, at least eight civilians, including a child, were injured.
Overnight, strikes in Odesa affected a childrenās hospital and two schools, causing power outages. The regions of Donetsk, Kherson, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia also sustained attacks that resulted in casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure.
Humanitarian workers and relief operations under fire
On Wednesday, OCHA stressed that humanitarian operations have not been spared. Just days ago, a missile strike damaged the warehouses and vehicles of a non-governmental organization (NGO) in Sumy, and a drone strike damaged an evacuation bus operated by another local NGO in the Donetsk region.
These attacks are examples of a wider pattern affecting humanitarian operations in Ukraine. At least six warehouses belonging to humanitarian organizations, including UN agencies, the Ukrainian Red Cross Society, and NGOs, have been impacted by attacks in Ukraine alone in August.
Between January and July, ten humanitarian workers were killed in Ukraine, and nearly 40 were injured. At least 20 warehouses were destroyed in the first seven months of the year, eliminating millions of dollars in aid. UN convoys have been attacked, and evacuation vehicles have been hit while attempting to save civilians.
Scores of civilians killed or injured in attacks over the weekend
On Monday, OCHA reported that nearly 60 civilians were killed and 240 were injured in attacks across Ukraine over the weekend, quoting Ukrainian authorities.
The Kyiv region was hit hardest, with a drone strike on an ammunition depot in the village of Myla triggering powerful explosions that killed 38 people, including residents of a care facility for older adults, and injured 52 others, many of whom were children. Some 200 houses and the care facility were destroyed or damaged.
Kyiv City also suffered drone and missile attacks between Sunday and Monday, resulting in the death of a two-year-old girl and injuring a dozen other residents. Along the front line, the Kherson region was the worst affected, with four people killed and nearly 60 others injured.
Civilian casualties were also reported in Donetsk, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia regions. A hospital in Kramatorsk, in the Donetsk region, was hit, and ambulances were damaged in Sumy.
The broader civilian toll
The mounting civilian casualties come after UN human rights monitors reported last month that July was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine in over four years, with at least 437 killed and over 2,600 injured. This was the highest number of civilian casualties documented in a single month since March 2022 and the highest number of fatalities since May 2022.
From January to July of this year, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission (HRMMU) verified that conflict-related violence in Ukraine resulted in 12,477 civilian casualties, including 1,839 deaths and 10,638 injuries. Compared to last year, civilian casualties rose 37 percent in the first half of the year.
Reported civilian casualties in Russia also increased in July. Russian authorities reported that 79 civilians were killed and 601 were injured in Russia in July. However, the UN has not been able to independently verify these figures according to its standards due to a lack of access and limited information.
Since February 24, 2022, the UN has documented the deaths and injuries of over 68,100 Ukrainian civilians. From February 2022 to July 2026, more than 16,800 civilians, including over 800 children, were killed in Ukraine, and over 51,200 people were injured.
As these are UN-verified figures, the real numbers are believed to be much higher. According to human rights monitors, many reports, particularly from specific locations and from the immediate aftermath of February 24, 2022, are still being verified due to their large volume. Other reports could not be verified due to a lack of access.
The ongoing displacement crisis
More than 9.6 million Ukrainians remain forcibly displaced due to Russiaās ongoing war against Ukraine, including an estimated 3.9 million internally displaced people and at least 5.7 million refugees worldwide, according to the latest figures from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR). Of these refugees, the largest number is hosted by Germany, followed by Poland.
However, the actual number of displaced Ukrainians who have crossed international borders may be much higher, as UNHCR's refugee figures primarily cover those registered in Europe (5.2 million) and other host countries (more than 500,000). Many Ukrainians in Russia, however, are recorded under different legal categories and are not fully reflected in UNHCR's refugee statistics.