UN: April was the month with the highest number of civilian casualties in Ukraine since September 2024 8 May 2025
Kyiv • UNN
April 2025 recorded the highest number of civilian casualties in Ukraine since September 2024. At least 209 people were killed and another 1,146 were injured.
April was the deadliest month for civilians in Ukraine since September 2024: at least 209 people were killed and another 1,146 were injured. This is stated in the latest report of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), writes UNN.
Details
According to the data published on May 8, in the monthly report on the protection of civilians for April 2025, 97% of all victims were civilians who were in the territory controlled by the government of Ukraine. Almost half of them were affected by missile strikes and shelling carried out by the Russian armed forces.
Kryvyi Rih, Sumy, Dnipro, Zaporizhzhia, Kyiv and Kharkiv were subjected to devastating shelling, which led to numerous deaths and injuries among civilians
According to her, one of the main reasons for such a sharp increase in the number of victims was the massive use of ballistic missiles against large cities throughout the country.
In particular, during a ballistic missile strike on Kryvyi Rih on April 4, 20 civilians were killed and at least 63 more were injured. A week later, on Palm Sunday (April 13), two missiles hit the city of Sumy, killing at least 31 civilians and injuring 105. Five days later, on April 18, one person was killed and at least 102 were injured in a missile strike on Kharkiv. And on April 24, at least 11 civilians were killed and 81 people were injured in Kyiv as a result of an attack using missiles and barrage ammunition.
This type of attack on large cities of Ukraine continues in May. New strikes by missiles and barrage ammunition have been recorded, in particular in Kharkiv, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia and Kyiv, which again led to civilian casualties.
The HRMMU notes that attacks, which sometimes occurred at the time and in places where many families gathered on the street, also led to a large number of child casualties. In April, at least 19 children were killed and 78 were injured, which is the highest confirmed monthly figure for child casualties since June 2022.
Attacks using short-range drones in areas near the front line caused 23% of all civilian casualties in April. Although most of these incidents were recorded in the Kherson region, one of the largest attacks occurred on April 23 in the city of Marhanets (Dnipropetrovsk region). As a result of a drone strike on a bus carrying employees of a mining plant, at least nine people were killed, including eight women, and 58 others were injured.
According to the HRMMU, this number of civilian casualties in April reflects a broader trend in 2025 - we are seeing an increase in the damage caused to the civilian population. From January to April 2025, 664 civilians were killed and another 3,425 were injured, which is 59% more compared to the same period in 2024.
The gradual and steady increase in the number of civilian casualties this year is directly related to the use of long-range missiles and drones in urban areas
She stressed that this situation is further complicated by regular drone attacks in front-line regions, which lead to an increasing and dangerous increase in the number of civilian casualties, including children.
