The Ombudsman’s Office has stated that 2025 saw the highest number of civilian deaths since the start of the full-scale war

The aftermath of the night-time shelling of Mykolaiv on 12 June. Photo: NikVesti, Kirill Vitvitsky

According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, the number of civilian deaths in 2025 was the highest since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

This was reported by Dmytro Lubinets, the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, during the presentation of the Annual Report on the Observance of Human and Civil Rights and Freedoms in Ukraine for 2025, according to NikVesti.

According to him, between 24 February 2022 and 31 December 2025, 41,378 civilian casualties were recorded in Ukraine, of whom 15,172 were killed. In addition, according to the ‘Children of War’ portal, 686 children were killed and 2,380 were injured.

He also provided data on facilities that were destroyed or damaged as a result of Russian shelling from 24 February 2022 to 31 December 2025:

• 250,000 residential buildings (according to the KSE project);
• 4,456 educational establishments (according to the «Education Under Threat» portal);
• 2,551 healthcare facilities (according to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine);
• 1,640 architectural heritage sites (according to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine);
• 2,446 cultural infrastructure facilities (according to the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine);
• 742 religious sites (according to the «Religion on Fire» project as of 2026).

«Today, the main violator of human rights in Ukraine is our mad neighbour — the Russian Federation. I don’t think I need to remind you of that. We all live with these realities every day, facing the consequences of the war on a daily basis,» added Vasyl Donets, representative of the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions.

As a reminder, in May this year, Ukraine recorded the highest number of civilian casualties in the last four years. According to the UN, at least 274 people were killed and over 1,700 more were injured.