Steep rise in civilian casualties in Russia-Ukraine war, UN says

Increasing use of long-range missiles and drones against targets far from the front line is worsening the civilian toll.

Civilian casualties in the war between Russia and Ukraine are increasing sharply, mainly because of long-range ballistic missiles and drones “affecting densely populated urban areas that are far away from the front line”, the United Nations says.

Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva on Tuesday that the unit documented 1,396 civilians killed and 7,978 wounded in Ukraine in the first six months of 2026.

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That was a 37 percent increase from the same period in the previous year and “almost doubled what we documented in 2024”, she said.

Pointing to credible Russian open-source reporting, Bell said 250 civilians had been killed and 1,596 injured in attacks inside Russia during the first six months of this year.

“This represents a 121 percent increase in civilian casualties in the Russian Federation compared with last year,” she said.

Both Moscow and Kyiv have intensified air strikes in recent months, targeting each other’s vital infrastructure, as United States-led talks on ending Russia’s invasion remain stalled, with the US’s focus largely turned towards its war on Iran.

Russia has frequently used ballistic missiles while Kyiv is currently short of Patriot interceptor munitions, which are crucial to defend against them. In retaliation, Ukraine is intensifying its attacks on Russian territory, mainly targeting oil depots. A series of Ukrainian drone ⁠attacks killed at least eight warehouse workers from Wildberries on ⁠Saturday and injured dozens more, while another attack caused a fire at an oil depot outside Moscow.

The second driver of the swelling civilian casualty toll was the widespread use of short-range drones and glide bombs in front-line areas, in particular the impact of so-called first-person view (FPV) drones, where the drone operator can see the target in real time, Bell said.

“In the first six months of this year, civilian casualties from short-range drones increased by 65 percent,” she said, adding that “these drones are fundamentally changing civilian life in front-line communities”.

During recent visits to Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, Kharkiv and Dnipro, Bell said people had told her team that they feel “tracked by FPV drones while carrying out ordinary daily activities: gardening, walking their dogs, feeding their animals outside, going to the store, driving or simply walking or cycling outdoors”.

Attack on ship angers India

Among the worst recent attacks in terms of civilian casualties was a Russian strike ⁠on the Golden Leo, a ⁠Guinea-Bissau-flagged ship carrying a cargo of corn and manned by a crew from India and Syria. It was hit by three cruise missiles on Sunday as it was leaving the Black Sea port of Odesa, with 10 crew members killed, including four Indians.

The region’s Governor Oleh Kiper told Ukrainian TV on Monday that Russian strikes in Odesa have now killed 28 people in the month of July alone.

India said on Tuesday that it ⁠had summoned ⁠Russia’s charge d’affaires in New Delhi, Vladimir Ladanov, and told him to convey to Moscow that attacks on commercial shipping and the resulting loss of civilian lives were unacceptable.

“Such attacks undermine the safety, security, and ⁠stability of international maritime commerce,” India’s external affairs ministry said in a statement.

Kremlin ⁠spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow had contacted the Indian government after the incident.

“We are explaining our position,” he said. “Most importantly, our ⁠armed forces are striking – and will continue to strike – vessels involved in transporting ammunition, weapons, ⁠and so on for the purposes ⁠of the Kyiv regime.”