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<\/p>\n
The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) has verified that\u00a0at least 274 civilians were killed and 1,763 injured last month\u00a0\u2013 a 93 per cent increase compared with May 2025<\/strong>\u00a0and a 23 per cent increase over April 2026.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWith more than 2,000 civilian\u202fcasualties,\u202fthe month of May saw more civilian\u202fcasualties\u202fthan any other month since April 2022,\u201d said\u00a0mission head,\u00a0Danielle Bell.\u00a0<\/p>\n Rights investigators\u00a0said\u00a0the use of powerful weapons by Russia in urban areas was the main driver of the high casualty toll<\/strong>.\u00a0<\/p>\n Attacks with long-range weapons \u2013 missiles and drones \u2013 accounted for 45 per cent of all casualties, most of which occurred in urban\u00a0centres\u00a0far from the frontline.\u00a0<\/p>\n For example, an aerial bomb\u00a0assault\u00a0on an industrial area in Zaporizhzhia city on 5 May killed 12 civilians and injured 42.\u00a0\u00a0On 14 May, a missile struck an apartment building in the capital, Kyiv, killing 24 civilians while at least seven others were wounded.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe civilian harm we documented was not limited to communities near the frontline. In cities across Ukraine, repeated attacks with missiles and aerial bombs killed and injured civilians far from areas of active ground combat<\/strong>,\u201d\u202fMs. Bell\u202fsaid.\u202f \u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Men accounted for\u00a0the majority of\u00a0overall casualties, but women and children\u00a0did not escape, including an elderly woman who had to have her leg amputated following a missile attack in the Chernihiv region on 19 May.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThe blast threw me against a fence,\u201d she said.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cI saw smoke and felt severe pain in my right leg. When I looked down, I saw that my leg had been\u00a0almost completely\u00a0torn off.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The investigators noted that in\u00a0previous years, the number of casualties steadily increased during\u00a0the\u00a0spring and summer\u00a0months.\u202fFigures so\u00a0far in 2026\u202fhave\u202ffollowed the same pattern,\u202fbut\u202fat a significantly higher level than in previous years. \u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n While\u00a0the vast majority of\u202fcasualties occurred in territory under Ukrainian Government control\u00a0\u2013 namely\u00a0across 20 regions and the city of Kyiv\u00a0\u2013\u00a0HRMMU also\u202fverified\u202fthat\u00a0some\u00a0civilians were\u202fkilled and injured in\u202fRussian-occupied territory<\/strong>.\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n In one case,\u202f21 civilians were killed and others injured when one or more weapons struck an educational complex in occupied Starobilsk, Luhansk region, during the night of 21-22 May. \u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Attacks with short-range drones\u202fwere\u202fthe primary cause of civilian casualties near the frontline, with\u00a0at least 64 killed and 539 injured in May<\/strong>.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n This was the highest\u00a0monthly\u00a0civilian toll caused by these weapons since\u00a0Russia launched its\u00a0full-scale invasion\u00a0of Ukraine\u00a0on 24 February 2022.\u00a0<\/p>\n The investigators cited the example of Kherson city, where\u202f14\u202fcivilians were\u202fkilled and 221 injured. Short-range drone attacks accounted for six of\u202fthe deaths\u202fand\u202f132\u202finjuries.\u202f\u202f\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n Other civilian casualties near the frontline resulted from aerial bombardments, artillery shelling and Multiple Launch Rocket System (MLRS) attacks, and incidents involving explosive remnants of war and mines.\u00a0<\/p>\n HRMMU noted that in addition to the number of civilian\u00a0casualties\u00a0that it has\u00a0verified\u202fin\u202fUkraine, including in\u00a0Russian-occupied areas, Russian authorities\u202fhave\u00a0reported that 47 civilians were killed and 298 injured\u202fin May\u202fon\u202fRussian territory.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n The\u00a0mission\u00a0said it\u00a0systematically collects and analyzes publicly available information\u202fon civilian casualties in Russia but\u202fcannot\u202fregularly\u202fverify\u00a0these figures\u00a0due to limited independent sources of information.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\nAttacks on urban areas<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\u2018The blast threw me against a fence\u2019<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Casualties in Russian-occupied territory<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n
Harm from short-rage drones<\/strong>\u00a0<\/h2>\n