UN complains about danger from Russian bombs in Ukraine

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UN complains about danger from Russian bombs in Ukraine

The United Nations highlights the danger posed by Russian bombs to civilians in the war in Ukraine. There were casualties on both sides along the front line.

The UN human rights experts in Ukraine have complained about the increasing number of civilian victims from Russian bombs. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine wrote in a report that 13 civilians were killed in the attack on Zaporizhia alone, more than in any other single attack in the past two years. “This underlines the danger to civilians from the use of aerial bombs in populated areas.”

Two bombs had hit an industrial plant in the city the day before. In addition to the 13 civilians killed, 110 others were injured. Last year, according to UN observers, 360 civilians were killed and 1,861 injured by bombs alone. The number is six times higher than in the previous year, it said.

A total of 2,064 civilians died last year (2023: 1,971 dead), and 9,089 others were injured (2023: 6,026 injured). The increase in the number of victims was largely due to the increased use of Russian glide bombs, the UN observer mission report said. After the start of the war, Russia began to retrofit aerial bombs with wings and satellite positioning systems. According to various reports, these bombs are dropped at distances of 30 to 80 kilometers from the target and then glide towards it with relative precision.

According to Ukrainian information, the Russian Air Force has used more than 51,000 glide bombs since the invasion of Ukraine. About 40,000 of them last year, mainly at Ukrainian army positions and settlements near the front, wrote the Ukrainian Air Force on Telegram.

In the eastern Ukrainian Donetsk region, at least two people were killed by Russian shelling in the city of Siversk. “I repeat once again: it is dangerous to stay in the Donetsk region!” wrote regional governor Vadym Filaschkin on Telegram. He called on the remaining civilians to get to safety. The front line between Russian and Ukrainian troops runs only about ten kilometers east of the small town, which had more than 10,000 inhabitants before the war.

There were also deaths on both sides in mutual shelling in the Kherson region of southern Ukraine. At least two civilians were killed by Russian shelling and another 14 were injured, the regional prosecutor’s office said on Telegram. The majority of the victims were reported to be in the regional capital Kherson.

According to local authorities, there were also casualties on the opposite side of the Dnipro River, which forms the front line. The regional chief appointed by Moscow, Vladimir Saldo, reported on Telegram that at least two people had died. Another six people were injured. The Ukrainian army is said to have used rockets with cluster munitions.

Parts of the Kherson region are occupied by Russians. Since the Russian withdrawal from the regional capital in November 2022, the Dnipro has separated the warring parties.

According to local authorities, people were killed by Ukrainian artillery fire in the adjacent occupied part of the Zaporizhzhia region. Almost eight kilometers west of the decommissioned Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, two women were killed in the city of Kamyanka-Dniprovska, the head of the area’s occupation administration, Yevgeny Balitsky, wrote on Telegram. Several houses were damaged.

Ukraine has been resisting a Russian invasion for almost three years.