By AFP and Kontur | 2026-01-15

United Nations (UN) monitors recorded more civilian deaths in Ukraine in 2025 than in any other year except 2022, as hostilities flared along the frontline and Russia expanded its use of long-range weapons, the UN's top rights body said on January 12.

The data comes as diplomatic attempts to end the war have stalled, with Russia last week rejecting a draft plan that would see European countries deploy soldiers in Ukraine once the war ends.

"The total civilian casualties in Ukraine in 2025 reached at least 2,514 killed and 12,142 injured, which is a 31 percent increase compared to 2024," the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) said in a report published Monday.

"Our monitoring shows that this rise was driven not only by intensified hostilities along the frontline, but also by the expanded use of long-range weapons, which exposed civilians across the country to heightened risk," the head of the OHCHR's monitoring mission in Ukraine, Danielle Bell, said in a press release attached to the report.

There is no reliable figure as to the total number of civilians killed in Ukraine since Russia invaded in February 2022.

The UN has verified almost 15,000 civilian deaths, it said in the report, but added that the "actual extent of civilian harm ... is likely considerably higher" since it is impossible to verify many cases and there is no access to areas that have come under Russian occupation.

Those places include the port city of Mariupol, where thousands are estimated to have been killed during a weeks-long siege by Russian forces at the start of the war.

Russia's battlefield gains in Ukraine last year were also higher than in any other year except 2022, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War, as Moscow pressed its advantage against outgunned and overstretched Ukrainian troops.

Dwindling freedoms

The rising civilian toll has been accompanied by mounting rights concerns in areas of Ukraine under Russian occupation, UN officials say.

The UN rights chief said in December restrictions were tightening on freedom of movement, expression and religion.

Volker Turk painted a grim picture of events in a presentation to the UN Human Rights Council, the United Nations' top rights body.

"In Russian-occupied territories, our findings include tightening restrictions on freedom of movement, expression, and religion," Turk said as he presented his office's latest report, covering June 1 to November 30 this year.

"Internet and messenger services have been further limited," he added.

"There are growing concerns about property confiscation by the Russian authorities in occupied territory, in violation of international humanitarian law.

"As of November 2025, more than 38,000 homes had been registered as potentially abandoned in occupied regions. Ukrainians reported being unable to verify the status and retain ownership of their private property, due to procedural obstacles."

Turk said that nearly four years on from Russia's full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022, "the plight of civilians has become even more unbearable".

"As peace negotiations continue, our monitoring and reporting show that the war is intensifying, causing more death, damage, and destruction."

The UN human rights commissioner lamented that most attention now was on the high-profile peace efforts, "whereas the daily suffering of the people across the country fades away" into the background.

Extrajudicial executions

Turk said that as part of negotiations on a ceasefire and a sustainable peace, he encouraged "confidence-building measures".

He said these could include commitments not to use long-range weapons and short-range drones in densely-populated areas, and commitments not to target critical energy infrastructure.

They could also include "commitments to exchange all prisoners of war and to release and return home all Ukrainian civilian detainees", he added.

Since Russia's invasion, Turk's office has documented the extrajudicial killing of 96 Ukrainian prisoners of war and people considered outside of combat, he said.

"Since mid-November, we have recorded an increase in reports of executions of Ukrainian service personnel. We assessed as credible the reported killing of 14 Ukrainian prisoners of war after capture by Russian forces, and we are looking into 10 other cases," said Turk.

According to a September report by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, Russia is responsible for "widespread and systematic violations" of international law in the treatment of Ukrainian prisoners of war, including "arbitrary killings".

Estimates indicate that at least 13,500 members of the Ukrainian armed forces have been detained since Moscow's invasion, it added.