July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since October 2022 – UN Human Rights Monitors

July was the deadliest month for Ukrainian civilians since October 2022, according to UN Human Rights Monitors.

Civilian casualties in Ukraine reached their highest level since October 2022 in July. The coordinated attacks initiated by Russian armed troops across Ukraine on July 8 killed dozens of civilians in a single day, making last month particularly lethal, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine reported.

The high number of casualties in July maintained an ominous trend of rising civilian casualties that began in March 2024, according to HRMU.

“The 8 July attack pushed civilian casualty numbers to a height we have not seen in 20 months,” stated HRMMU chief Danielle Bell. “I sincerely hope that the July figure was an outlier and that the trend of rising civilian casualties comes to an end.

In its monthly report on civilian injury, HRMMU confirmed that the war-related violence killed at least 219 Ukrainian civilians and injured 1,018 in July. The number of civilian casualties in July was the highest since October 2022, when conflict-related violence killed 317 people and injured 795.

The pattern of Ukraine’s civilian suffering in July was similar to previous months, with explosive weapons with wide-area effects causing the vast majority of civilian harm, with the majority of harm occurring on Ukrainian-controlled territory attacked by Russia, mostly by guided bombs and missiles.

The single highest number of casualties occurred on July 8, when Russian military forces launched high-precision missiles against targets in Kyiv City, Dnipro City, Kryvyi Rih (Dnipropetrovsk region), and the Kyiv region. In total, the 8 July strikes killed at least 43 civilians, including 5 children, and injured 147 others, including seven children.

The majority of civilian casualties occurred when a missile or debris from a missile intercepted by air defense struck a residential building in the Shevchenkivskyi district in Kyiv (13 killed and at least 20 injured), a business center in the Solomianskyi district in Kyiv (6 killed and at least 10 injured), a medical center in the Dniprovskyi district in Kyiv (9 killed and at least 5 injured), the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv (2 killed and at least 18 injured), and

The attack on July 8 destroyed or damaged multiple healthcare facilities across Ukraine. One missile targeted a hospital complex in Kyiv, destroying the toxicology department building of Okhmatdyt National Children’s Hospital and severely damaging Ukraine’s Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery. At least eight individuals sustained injuries, while one hospital employee lost their life.

The hospital complex sustained damage from a direct missile hit, not from falling debris from an air defense interception, according to a detailed analysis of the impact site, witness testimony, and videos, including footage of the missile just before impact.