UN Says 2025 Was Deadliest Year for Civilians in Russia-Ukraine War
JAKARTA - The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission earlier this week revealed that 2025 was the year with the highest number of civilian deaths since the Russian-Ukrainian role broke out in 2022, triggered by more intense fighting along the front lines and increased use of long-range weapons.
Conflict-related violence in Ukraine killed 2,514 civilians and injured 12,142 in 2025, an increase of 31 percent in the number of casualties from 2024, the monitoring agency said in a monthly update on civilian casualties, Daily Sabah reported from Reuters (14/1).
Most of the victims verified by the watchdog occurred in government-held territory of Ukraine as a result of attacks by the Russian armed forces, the statement added.
Separately, Ukrainian officials generally cite U.N. figures as accurate.
"The increased efforts of the Russian armed forces to seize territory in 2025 resulted in the killing and injuring of civilians, the destruction of vital infrastructure, the suspension of essential services, and a new wave of refugees on the front lines," the monitoring agency said.
Almost two-thirds of all the fatalities last year occurred in the frontline areas, with the elderly in particular being affected as they remained in their villages. Civilian casualties from short-range drones have also increased sharply, he added.
"The widespread use of short-range drones has made many areas near the front line uninhabitable," said Danielle Bell, head of the monitoring mission.
"By 2025, many people who have survived for years in hostilities will finally be forced to leave their homes," he added.
Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been wounded or killed in the deadliest war in Europe since World War Two, although neither side releases complete figures.
Thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been killed, especially in 2022, the first year of the war, during Russia's long siege of the port of Mariupol and its assault on cities before the front lines hardened.
Since then, Moscow has continued to use missiles and drones to attack cities across Ukraine. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, but says its attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure are justified because they hinder the war effort.
Ukraine is also targeting civilian infrastructure in Russia and Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine, though on a much smaller scale.
The UN statement said the increased use of long-range weapons by the Russian armed forces that began in June 2025 also led to an increase in civilian casualties in urban centers across Ukraine.
"The sharp increase in long-range attacks and targeting of Ukraine's national energy infrastructure means that the consequences of the war are now being felt by civilians far beyond the front lines," Bell said.
Russian authorities themselves reported that attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces killed 253 civilians and injured 1,872 in the Russian Federation last year, the watchdog said.
Due to a lack of access and limited public information, the watchdog was unable to verify these figures, he added.