At least 1,480 civilians have been killed and at least 2,195 have been injured in Ukraine since the beginning of the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, said Rosemary DiCarlo, the United Nations' under secretary-general for political and peacebuilding affairs, CNN reports.
Citing updated numbers from the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, DiCarlo said OHCHR believes the actual figures of civilian casualties to be “considerably higher.”
She noted that the number of Ukrainian civilians in the conflict has “more than doubled” since she last briefed the Security Council on March 17.
“Ukrainian cities continue to be mercilessly pounded, often indiscriminately, by heavy artillery and aerial bombardments. And hundreds of thousands of people, including children, the elderly and the disabled, remain trapped in encircled areas under nightmarish conditions,” DiCarlo said Monday at a UN Security Council meeting. “The horror deepened this past weekend as shocking images emerged of dead civilians — some with hands bound — lying in the streets of Bucha, the town near Kyiv formerly held by Russian forces. Many bodies were also found in a mass grave in the same locality.”
The UN is also “seriously concerned” about the “arbitrary arrests and enforced disappearances of persons who have been vocal against the Russian invasion,” DiCarlo said.
“OHCHR has documented the arbitrary detention and possible enforced disappearance of 22 journalists and civil society members” in Ukraine, as well as 24 local officials who have been detained in regions under Russian control, 13 of whom have been released, DiCarlo said. She added that as of March 30, OHCHR has also recorded seven journalists and media workers killed.
There have been allegations “of conflict-related sexual violence” by both Russian and Ukrainian forces and civil defense militias, DiCarlo continued. “The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine continues to seek to verify all these allegations."
