UN confirms at least 25 civilians killed, 100 wounded in Ukraine

By AP 25 February 2022, 2:50 pm

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Firefighters work at a damaged residential building at Koshytsa Street, on the outskirts of the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, on February 25, 2022. (GENYA SAVILOV / AFP)

The UN human rights office says it is receiving increasing reports of civilian casualties in Ukraine in the wake of Russia’s military invasion.

Spokeswoman Ravina Shamdasani of the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights says its staffers have so far verified at least 127 civilian casualties. They include 25 people killed and 102 injured, mostly from shelling and airstrikes.

She cautions that the numbers are “very likely to be an underestimate.”

Spokeswoman Shabia Mantoo of the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, says its latest update is that more than 100,000 people are believed to have left their homes in Ukraine. She says the agency’s planning figures anticipate that “up to 4 million people may flee to other countries if the situation escalates.”