During the

Russian invasion of Ukraine On 24 February 2022, , starting the largest and deadliest war in Europe since World War II, in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian War, conflict between the two countries which began in 2014. The fighting has caused hundreds of thou ...

, the Russian military have carried out deliberate attacks against civilian targets and

indiscriminate attack In international humanitarian law and international criminal law, an indiscriminate attack is a military attack that fails to distinguish between legitimate military targets and protected persons. Indiscriminate attacks strike both legitimate mi ...

s in densely-populated areas. The

United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine United may refer to: Places * United, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated community * United, West Virginia, an unincorporated community Arts and entertainment Films * ''United'' (2003 film), a Norwegian film * ''United'' (2011 film), a BBC Two f ...

says the Russian military exposed the civilian population to unnecessary and

disproportionate In chemistry, disproportionation, sometimes called dismutation, is a redox reaction in which one compound of intermediate oxidation state converts to two compounds, one of higher and one of lower oxidation state. The reverse of disproportionatio ...

harm by using

cluster bombs A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy veh ...

and by firing other weapons with wide-area effects into civilian areas, such as missiles, heavy artillery shells and multiple launch rockets. As of 2025, the attacks had resulted in the UN-documented deaths of between 13,000 and estimated 40,000 dead civilians. On 22 April 2022, the UN reported that of the 2,343 civilian casualties it had been able to document, it could confirm 92.3% of these deaths were as a result of the actions of the Russian armed forces. On 5 July 2022, the

UN High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univer ...

(OHCHR),

Michelle Bachelet Verónica Michelle Bachelet Jeria (; born 29 September 1951) is a Chilean politician who served as President of Chile from 2006 to 2010 and again from 2014 to 2018, becoming the first woman to hold the presidency. She was re-elected in December ...

, reported that most civilian casualties documented by her office had been caused by the Russian army's use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated areas, calling it "indisputable". By 30 June 2023, OHCHR assessed that 90.5% of all civilian deaths were caused by such indiscriminate attack, and that 84.2% of them were recorded in Ukrainian-held territory. estimated that by March 2023 the Russian forces were firing at a rate of between 600,000 and 1.8 million shells per month. By February 2024, Russia had fired between 12 and 17 million artillery shells against Ukraine. By the end of 2023, Russian forces launched about 7,400 missiles and 3,900 Shahed drone strikes against Ukraine according to Ukrainian military officials. Reports on the use of cluster bombs raised concerns about the high number of civilian casualties and the long-lasting danger of unexploded ordnance. According to the OHCHR, cluster bombs have been used by Russian armed forces and pro-Russian separatists in densely populated areas, resulting in civilian casualties.

Bombing of Chernihiv

Russian bombardment in the center of Chernihiv

On 3 March 2022, just after 12:00 (UTC+2), six Russian unguided aerial bombs were filmed falling in a residential area in

Chernihiv Chernihiv (, ; , ) is a city and municipality in northern Ukraine, which serves as the administrative center of Chernihiv Oblast and Chernihiv Raion within the oblast. Chernihiv's population is The city was designated as a Hero City of Ukraine ...

. Analysis by

Amnesty International Amnesty International (also referred to as Amnesty or AI) is an international non-governmental organization focused on human rights, with its headquarters in the United Kingdom. The organization says that it has more than ten million members a ...

found that (at least) eight bombs fell. Two schools (No.18 and No.21) and 8 private houses in the intersection between the Viacheslava Chornovila and Kruhova streets () were destroyed, 7 more houses were also heavily damaged in the vicinity of the Biloruskyi Lane. Local emergency services recorded 38 men and 9 women killed (47 in total) by the bombing and 18 people injured. As Amnesty International was unable to identify a legitimate military target nearby, it said the attack could be a

war crime A war crime is a violation of the laws of war that gives rise to individual criminal responsibility for actions by combatants in action, such as intentionally killing civilians or intentionally killing prisoners of war, torture, taking hostage ...

Human Rights Watch Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. Headquartered in New York City, the group investigates and reports on issues including War crime, war crimes, crim ...

(HRW) found no evidence of a "significant ilitarytarget in or near the intersection when it was hit ... pointing to a potentially deliberate or reckless indiscriminate attack". HRW called for an

International Criminal Court The International Criminal Court (ICC) is an intergovernmental organization and International court, international tribunal seated in The Hague, Netherlands. It is the first and only permanent international court with jurisdiction to prosecute ...

investigation and a

United Nations commission of inquiry A United Nations fact-finding mission, also called a United Nations commission of inquiry, is a United Nations mission carried out with the intention to discover facts. Fact-finding missions have been sent by the UN to a number of conflict areas ...

to decide if a war crime had occurred and to hold to account the people responsible. The HRW investigation included telephone interviews with three witnesses and two other Chernihiv residents, and analysis of 22 videos and 12 photographs. The witnesses interviewed by HRW stated that they were unaware of military targets or operations in the neighbourhood. Matilda Bogner, Head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, stated that the bombing "violated the principles of distinction, of proportionality, the rule on feasible precautions and the prohibition of indiscriminate attacks". A bomb crater consistent with a 500 kg bomb was found.

FAB-500 The FAB-500 is a Soviet-designed general purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead, primarily used by the Russian Aerospace Forces, former Soviet republics and customer countries. The original M-54 model was rolled out in 1954, ...

bombs were known to be used during the invasion. On 16 March 2022, a Russian attack killed 14 civilians who were waiting in a line for bread in the city, The event was reported by

Governor of Chernihiv Oblast The governor of Chernihiv Oblast is the head of executive branch for the Chernihiv Oblast. The office of governor is an appointed position, with officeholders being appointed by the president of Ukraine, on recommendation from the prime ministe ...

Vyacheslav Chaus Vyacheslav Anatoliyovych Chaus (; born on 28 August 1977) is a Ukrainian politician who is currently the governor of Chernihiv Oblast since 4 August 2021. Biography Vyacheslav Chaus was born in Chernihiv on 28 August 1977. In 1995, he graduat ...

and the United States Embassy in Kyiv. The incident happened at around 10:00

UTC+3 UTC+03:00 is an identifier for a UTC offset, time offset from UTC of +03:00. In areas using this time offset, the time is three hours ahead of the Coordinated Universal Time, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). Following the ISO 8601 standard, ...

. Victims of the incident were killed following a blast shot from

heavy artillery The formal definition of large-calibre artillery used by the United Nations Register of Conventional Arms (UNROCA) is "guns, howitzers, artillery pieces, combining the characteristics of a gun, howitzer, mortar, or rocket, capable of engaging ...

. These civilians were unarmed and some of them survived the shelling; they were taken to medical facilities by the Chernihiv police. An American citizen was among the dead. Around four hours after the incident, the Chernihiv Regional Prosecutor's Office filed a legal case regarding the attack. The Chernihiv Oblast branch of the

Security Service of Ukraine The Security Service of Ukraine ( ; abbreviated as SBU [] or SSU) is the main Internal security, internal security agency of the Government of Ukraine, Ukrainian government. Its main duties include counter-intelligence activity and combati ...

also started an investigation. On 19 August 2023 at about 11:30 Saturday morning seven civilians were killed, dozens hospitalized, and over a 150 injured after Russian Armed Forces launched a 9М727

Iskander The 9K720 Iskander (; NATO reporting name SS-26 Stone) is a Russian mobile short-range ballistic missile system. It has a range of . It was intended to replace the OTR-21 Tochka in the Russian military by 2020. The Iskander has several differ ...

cruise missile and hit the Taras Shevchenko Music and Drama Theater at

Krasna Square The Krasna Square () is the main public square located in the city of Chernihiv, Ukraine. History From the Kievan Rus' era up until the 20th century, the square served as the city’s main trade center, featuring numerous stalls and small shop ...

, the city center. The detonator of the warhead of the missile was configured for air detonation, so all the dead and the vast majority of the injured were from outside the drama theater. According to the acting mayor of the city, the military exhibition held in the building was the likely target. Early reporting indicated five people killed and 42 injured, including 11 children presumably among the injured. The estimates went up to 90 injured, including 25 hospitalized, and six dead after a six-year-old child died in the hospital, and then seven dead after another women's body was found.

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

On 7 April 2022, there were three strikes on the oblast during the day. Russian forces struck

Synelnykove Synelnykove (, ) is a city and municipality in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is the largest city in the south-eastern part of the region. It serves as the administrative center of Synelnykove Raion within the oblast. It is named after the Ru ...

and

Kryvyi Rih Kryvyi Rih ( ; , ), also known as Krivoy Rog ( ), is a city in central Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Kryvyi Rih Raion and its subordinate Kryvyi Rih urban hromada in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. The city is part of the Kryvyi Rih Metropo ...

raions. About four people died and seven were injured. Two civilians also went missing.

Dnipro missile strikes

On 11 March 2022, three missiles hit the city and killed one person, striking close to an apartment building and a kindergarten. On 28 June, Russian forces fired six 3M-14E Kalibr

cruise missile A cruise missile is an unmanned self-propelled guided missile that sustains flight through aerodynamic lift for most of its flight path. Cruise missiles are designed to deliver a large payload over long distances with high precision. Modern cru ...

s from the

Black Sea The Black Sea is a marginal sea, marginal Mediterranean sea (oceanography), mediterranean sea lying between Europe and Asia, east of the Balkans, south of the East European Plain, west of the Caucasus, and north of Anatolia. It is bound ...

to Dnipro at around 5:30 local time. One of them hit an Avtodiesel car repair shop, killing a man and a woman. Seven other people, including a six-year-old boy, were injured. Fragments of the Kalibr missile were found afterwards. On the morning of 29 September 2022 missiles hit residential areas in Dnipro, and three people were killed. The central bus station was also hit. Dnipro was also hit during the 10 October 2022 Russian missile strikes. It was hit by at least five missiles, During the attack that took place during morning rush hour three civilians were killed. On 18 October 2022, Russian missiles hit energy infrastructure in Dnipro. One man was injured and a large-scale fire broke out at an energy facility that was severely damaged, more than three dozen residential buildings were damaged, including schools and kindergartens. On 25 October 2022 two people were killed, including a pregnant woman, and four injured due to a fire at a gas station after fragments of a Russian missile hit it. On 26 November 2022, around noon, a Russian missile strike on Dnipro injured 13 people and partially destroyed seven private houses in Dnipro's Amur-Nyzhnodniprovskyi District. Dnipro mayor Borys Filatov reported that city communications and infrastructure were not damaged. Governor Valentyn Reznichenko stated that due to the attack one woman was hospitalised in critical condition. The following day Reznichenko reported that a man was found dead under the rubble. Another Russian missile strike destroyed an enterprise on the night of 29 November 2022, no casualties were reported.

Dnipro apartment block strike

On 14 January 2023 at about 3:30p.m., a Russian Kh-22 type missile hit a nine-story residential building in Dnipro on the , Sobornyi District in the right-bank part of the city, destroying one entrance and 236 apartments. On 19 January the official casualty rate was stated as 46 people killed, 80 injured (12 in critical condition) and 11 people reported missing. 14 children were reported among the injured, and 39 inhabitants were rescued. The destruction left about 400 people homeless. This strike became the most destructive Russian attack on a residential building in Ukraine in the last six months. A three-day period of mourning was declared in Dnipro.

Kryvyi Rih missile strikes

Russian missiles struck residential buildings in the southern central city of

, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown, several times. On 13 June 2023, Russian cruise missiles struck an apartment block and civilian warehouses in Kryvyi Rih, killing thirteen people. On 31 July 2023, a Russian missile struck an apartment block in Kryvyi Rih, killing at least six civilians, including a 10-year-old girl and her mother. On 28 August 2024, local authorities said that Kryvyi Rih was struck by a Russian missile which hit civilian infrastructure. Eight people were reported to have been wounded by the attack. As it was struck, Kryvyi Rih was observing an official day of mourning for an attack the previous day that had killed four civilians in a hotel. On 28 October 2024, a Russian missile struck a residential building in Kryvyi Rih, killing one person and wounding at least 11. On 6 December 2024, two people were killed by a Russian missile strike on an administrative building. Emergency services added that residential houses had also been damaged and 19 people, including a child, had been injured in the attack. On 12 March 2025, Dnipropetrovsk regional governor

Serhiy Lysak Serhii Petrovych Lysak () is a former agent of the Security Service of Ukraine who is since 7 February 2023 Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast. On 2 April 2025,

Ukrainska Pravda ''Ukrainska Pravda'' is a Ukrainian socio-political online media outlet founded by Heorhii Gongadze in April 2000. After Gongadze’s death in September 2000, the editorial team was led by co-founder Olena Prytula, who remained the editor-in ...

reported that Russia had struck Kryvyi Rih with a

ballistic missile A ballistic missile is a type of missile that uses projectile motion to deliver warheads on a target. These weapons are powered only during relatively brief periods—most of the flight is unpowered. Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typic ...

. The attack damaged multi-storey residential buildings, a gym, and an administrative building. According to the local military administration, four people were killed and 14 were injured, including two children. On 4 April 2025, Russia struck a dense residential area with a missile, spraying shrapnel which also hit a playground. The attack killed 20 people, 11 adults and nine children, and dozens of people were injured. According to Reuters, the strike, described as one of the deadliest attacks on civilians in months, jeopardised the US's push for a ceasefire in the war. The United Nations called the strike Russia's deadliest attack on Ukrainian children in the three years since the invasion started.

Chaplyne railway station strike

On 24 August 2022, the

Independence Day of Ukraine Independence Day of Ukraine (, ) is a public holidays in Ukraine, state holiday in Ukraine, celebrated on 24 August in commemoration of the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine, Declaration of Independence of 1991. History When Ukraine was st ...

, Russian forces struck

Chaplyne Chaplyne (, ; ) is a Populated places in Ukraine#Rural settlements, rural settlement in Synelnykove Raion, Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, Ukraine. It belongs to Dubovyky rural hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Its latest estimated population was ...

, damaging a railway station, a utility building, and a residential neighborhood. Several passenger rail cars were set on fire and destroyed. Ukrainian sources described multiple rockets or missiles being used in several attacks. At least 25 people (including 2 children) died and about 31 were injured. The Russian defense ministry claimed it had targeted a military train using a single Iskander missile, and that the attack had killed 200 Ukrainian soldiers. According to an

Associated Press The Associated Press (AP) is an American not-for-profit organization, not-for-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association, and produces news reports that are dist ...

reporter on site, there was no visible indication that Ukrainian soldiers were among the victims. International legal experts said that the attack might qualify as a war crime if civilians were the target.

Dnipro drone strikes

On 29 April 2025, regional governor Lysak said that Russia had launched a mass drone attack on Dnipro using Shahed drones, setting several homes on fire and killing one 53-year-old man.

Donetsk Oblast

There were at least 7,395 civilian casualties (of which 3,511 killed) in the government-controlled territory of Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts and 2,035 civilian casualties (of which 467 killed) in the territory controlled by the Russian forces and affiliated groups between February and November 2022. The months-long siege of Mariupol caused a large number of civilian casualties and a few other attacks with many civilian casualties occurred in the oblast. Donetsk itself experienced several attacks with civilian casualties, including the shelling of a market and the mayor's office. Pro-Russian officials blamed Ukraine for the attacks while Ukraine blamed Russia or did not comment on the attacks. On 8 August 2022 the UK Ministry of Defence issued a statement accusing Russia of using anti-personnel

PFM-1 PFM-1 () is a scatterable high explosive anti-personnel land mine of Soviet and Russian production. It is also known as a Flower Petal Mine (), Green Parrot, or Butterfly Mine. The mines can be deployed from mortars, helicopters and airplanes i ...

scatterable anti-personnel mines along the defensive lines in Donbas, adding that such mines are undiscriminate and pose a threat to civilians.

Vuhledar cluster bomb attack

On 24 February 2022, 10:30 (UTC),

Vuhledar Vuhledar (, ; , ), is a city in Volnovakha Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Vuhledar urban hromada. At the beginning of 2022, its population was Vuhledar is a coal mining city in the cultural and eco ...

was attacked with an 9M79 Tochka missile, which landed next to a hospital and killed four civilians and injured ten. Amnesty International described it as "irrefutable evidence of violations of international humanitarian law and international human rights law" by Russian forces. Human Rights Watch (HRW) found that the Vuhledar hospital attack used a 9N123 cluster munition. The 9N123 contains fifty 9N24 individual submunitions, which each split into 316 bomblets. HRW based its analysis on contacts with the hospital and municipal administrations and multiple photographic evidence. HRW called for Russian forces to stop making "unlawful attacks with weapons that indiscriminately kill and maim". The press secretary of the Russian Federation, Dmitry Peskov, denied Russian involvement, saying that this type of ammunition is used by the

Armed Forces of Ukraine The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) are the Military, military forces of Ukraine. All military and security forces, including the Armed Forces, are under the command of the president of Ukraine and subject to oversight by a permanent Verkhovna Rad ...

Lyman cluster bomb attack

On 8 July 2023, Russian

launched by a

BM-30 Smerch The BM-30 ''Smerch'' (, 'whirlwind'), 9K58 Smerch or 9A52-2 Smerch-M is a heavy Self-propelled artillery, self-propelled 300 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union to fire a full load of 12 solid-fuelled projectiles. The ...

struck a residential area of Lyman, in Donetsk Oblast. Nine civilians were killed and nineteen wounded. Witnesses said residents "had gathered to trade dairy products and fresh produce from their gardens, as they did most mornings". The use of cluster bombs in areas with civilians "makes an attack indiscriminate, in violation of

international humanitarian law International humanitarian law (IHL), also referred to as the laws of armed conflict or the laws of war, is the law that regulates the conduct of war (''wikt:jus in bello, jus in bello''). It is a branch of international law that seeks to limit ...

Siege of Mariupol

Between 1–2 March 2022, Russian artillery reportedly shelled a densely populated neighbourhood in the city for nearly 15 hours, causing significant destruction. Deputy mayor Sergei Orlov reported that "at least hundreds of people

ere Ere or ERE may refer to: * ''Environmental and Resource Economics'', a peer-reviewed academic journal * ERE Informatique, one of the first French video game companies * Ere language, an Austronesian language * Ebi Ere (born 1981), American-Nigeria ...

dead." On 16 March the

Institute for the Study of War The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) is an American nonprofit research group and advocacy think tank founded in 2007 by military historian Kimberly Kagan and headquartered in Washington, D.C. ISW provides research and analysis of modern arm ...

(ISW) reported that Russian forces continued to commit

s in Mariupol including "targeting civilian infrastructure". On 18 March, Lieutenant General

James Hockenhull General Sir James Richard Hockenhull, (born 27 July 1964), is a senior British Army officer who serves as Commander of UK Strategic Command, as well as Aide-de-Camp General to the King (formerly to the Queen) since 2022. Background and edu ...

, Chief of Defence Intelligence for the United Kingdom (UK), described "continued targeting of civilians in Mariupol". As of 20 March local authorities have estimated that at least 2,300 people were killed during the siege. On 20 March 2022, Ukrainian authorities announced that Russian troops had bombed an art school in the city where hundreds (about 400) were sheltering. The Mariupol City Council made the announcement through the instant messaging service

Telegram Telegraphy is the long-distance transmission of messages where the sender uses symbolic codes, known to the recipient, rather than a physical exchange of an object bearing the message. Thus flag semaphore is a method of telegraphy, whereas pi ...

, highlighting that many of those sheltering in the school were women, children and elderly. However, Petro Andryushchenko, an advisor to the Mayor of Mariupol, raised the concern that there was no exact number on how many people were using the school as a refuge. By 18 April, Ukrainian officials estimated that at least 95% of Mariupol had been destroyed in the fighting, largely as a result of the Russian bombing campaigns. City officials reported that up to 21,000 civilians had been killed. On 16 June, the

said that evidence strongly suggests the Russian armed forces committed serious violations of international humanitarian and human rights law in Mariupol, including the shelling and rocket attacks that destroyed much of the city. In a separate statement, Human Rights Watch said Russia's military tactics were indiscriminate and caused a disproportionate effect on the civilians in the city. It also warned that going forward, access to the city and preservation of evidence were likely to be issues, given Russia's occupation of the city, and it called for international accountability. Independent media and the Ukrainian side accused the Russian military of bombing civilian shelters with cluster munitions during shelling of the city and attacks on Azovstal. According to the mayor of Mariupol, at the end of April, during the two-month siege of the city by Russian troops, more than 20 thousand people died - twice as many than the 2 year occupation of the city during World War II. Oksana Pokalchuk, director of Amnesty International Ukraine, said they were able to prove the use of cluster munitions by Russia after interviewing a victim who provided them with a fragment of ammunition that was removed from his thigh.

Targeting of humanitarian corridors

During shelling of Mariupol by Russian forces, a number of attempts to establish a humanitarian evacuation corridor to evacuate civilians from the city were made, but failed when the corridor was targeted by Russian forces. On 5 March, a five-hour ceasefire was declared, but evacuations were quickly halted after shelling continued during the declared time. The next day, the

International Committee of the Red Cross The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) is a humanitarian organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, and is a three-time Nobel Prize laureate. The organization has played an instrumental role in the development of rules of war and ...

(ICRC) announced that a second attempt to establish an evacuation corridor had failed.

Mariupol hospital airstrike

On 9 March 2022, the Children's and Maternity Hospital No. 3, a hospital complex functioning both as a children's

hospital A hospital is a healthcare institution providing patient treatment with specialized Medical Science, health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically ...

and maternity ward, was bombed several times by Russian forces during a ceasefire, killing at least four people and injuring at least seventeen, also leading to at least one stillbirth Ukrainian authorities described the damage to the hospital as "colossal". Video footage following the attacks showed "much of the front of the building ... ripped away" and "mangled cars burning outside". Hospital wards were "reduced to a wreckage, walls adcollapsed, rubble cover dmedical equipment, windows

blown out and shattered glass aseverywhere". On 10 March, local authorities stated that one girl and two other people had been killed in the bombing, one of whom was a woman at a late stage of pregnancy; neither she nor her unborn child survived. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy stated that people had "hidden" from the attack in time, minimising the number of casualties. Deputy Mayor of Mariupol, Sergei Orlov, stated, "We don't understand how it is possible in modern life to bomb children's hospital." Mariupol City Council described the bombing by Russian aircraft as deliberate. Zelenskyy claimed that the attack constituted "proof that the

genocide Genocide is violence that targets individuals because of their membership of a group and aims at the destruction of a people. Raphael Lemkin, who first coined the term, defined genocide as "the destruction of a nation or of an ethnic group" by ...

of Ukrainians astaking place". Sergei Orlov, deputy mayor of Mariupol, described the attack as both a war crime and genocide.

British prime minister The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pri ...

Boris Johnson Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (born 19 June 1964) is a British politician and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from 2019 to 2022. He wa ...

described the attack as "depraved".

Jen Psaki Jennifer Rene Psaki (; born December 1, 1978) is an American television political analyst and former government official. A political advisor who served under both the Obama and Biden administrations, she served the Biden administration as the ...

, press secretary of United States president Joe Biden, stated that "It is horrifying to see the ... barbaric use of military force to go after innocent civilians in a sovereign country." Josep Borrell, High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, described the bombing as a "heinous war crime".

Cardinal Secretary of State The Secretary of State of His Holiness (; ), also known as the Cardinal Secretary of State or the Vatican Secretary of State, presides over the Secretariat of State of the Holy See, the oldest and most important dicastery of the Roman Curia. Th ...

of the

Vatican City Vatican City, officially the Vatican City State (; ), is a Landlocked country, landlocked sovereign state and city-state; it is enclaved within Rome, the capital city of Italy and Bishop of Rome, seat of the Catholic Church. It became inde ...

Pietro Parolin Pietro Parolin (, ; born 17 January 1955) is an Catholic Church in Italy, Italian Catholic prelate who has served as the Holy See, Vatican's Cardinal Secretary of State, Secretary of State since 2013, and has served as a member of the Council o ...

expressed dismay at the bombing, calling it an "unacceptable attack on civilians". António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, wrote that the attack was "horrific" and that "this senseless violence must stop." On 10 March, the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Defence publicly claimed that the bombing was justified. According to ''

'', foreign minister

Sergey Lavrov Sergey Viktorovich Lavrov (, ; born 21 March 1950) is a Russian diplomat who has served as Minister of Foreign Affairs (Russia), Minister of Foreign Affairs since 2004. He is the longest-serving Russian foreign minister since Andrei Gromyko d ...

confirmed that the bombing of the hospital was a deliberate action. He stated, "A few days ago, at a UN Security Council meeting, the Russian delegation presented factual information that this maternity hospital had long been taken over by the Azov Battalion and other radicals and that all the women in labour, all the nurses and in general all the staff had been told to leave it. It was a base of the ultra-radical Azov Battalion." On 10 March 2022,

Twitter Twitter, officially known as X since 2023, is an American microblogging and social networking service. It is one of the world's largest social media platforms and one of the most-visited websites. Users can share short text messages, image ...

removed a tweet from the Russian embassy in the UK which claimed that the Mariupol hospital attack was "fake" and that Marianna Vyshegirskaya, one of the victims, was an "actress" by citing her blogging career, as a violation of Twitter rules. British politicians welcomed the move and accused the Russian embassy of

disinformation Disinformation is misleading content deliberately spread to deceive people, or to secure economic or political gain and which may cause public harm. Disinformation is an orchestrated adversarial activity in which actors employ strategic dece ...

. ''

Meduza ''Meduza'' (Russian: Медуза, named after the Greek goddess Medusa) is a Russian- and English-language independent news website, headquartered in Riga, Latvia. It was founded in 2014 by a group of former employees of the then-independent ...

'' stated that the Russian representative to the United Nations,

Vasily Nebenzya Vasily Alekseyevich Nebenzya (; born 26 February 1962) is a Russian diplomat and the current Permanent Representative of Russia to the United Nations. His official title is Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary. Life and career Nebenzya ...

, had on 7 March referred to ''Maternity Hospital No 1'' () as a hospital that he claimed was used by Ukrainian armed forces as a firing point, not ''Maternity Hospital No 3''. ''Meduza'' described Lavrov as having confused ''Hospital No 1'', referred to by Nebenzya, with the hospital that was bombed, ''Hospital No 3''. On 22 March 2022, Russian journalist

Alexander Nevzorov Alexander Glebovich (Oleksandr Hlibovych) Nevzorov (; Ukrainian: Олександр Глібович Невзоров; born on 3 August 1958) is a Russian and Ukrainian television journalist, film director and a former member of the Russian S ...

was charged under Russia's "fake news" law after he published information about the Russian shelling of a maternity hospital in Mariupol. Under a new law passed on 4 March, he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison.

Mariupol theatre airstrike

On 16 March, Ukraine accused Russian forces of shelling civilian areas in Mariupol. Artillery hit numerous locations, including a

swimming pool A swimming pool, swimming bath, wading pool, paddling pool, or simply pool, is a structure designed to hold water to enable Human swimming, swimming and associated activities. Pools can be built into the ground (in-ground pools) or built abo ...

building and a vehicle convoy; shelling then struck the

Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre (; ) or Mariupol Drama Theatre (; ) is a theatre in Mariupol in southern Ukraine. The modern theatre was constructed in 1960 in the approximate location of the former Church of Mary Magdalene (Mariupol), C ...

that was being used as an

air raid shelter Air raid shelters are structures for the protection of non-combatants as well as combatants against enemy attacks from the air. They are similar to bunkers in many regards, although they are not designed to defend against ground attack (but ...

with a large number of civilians inside, the building was reduced to rubble. The bomb shelter in the basement of the theatre survived the bombing, but many people were still trapped underneath the burning rubble. A member of the Ukrainian parliament from Mariupol, Dmytro Gurin, said that the rescue efforts were hampered due to continued attacks on the area by Russian forces. By 17 March, the number of casualties was unclear; some emerged alive. By 18 March, around 130 survivors had been rescued. Mariupol City Council stated that according to initial information, no one had been killed, although one person was gravely wounded. On 25 March, Mariupol City Council estimated that about 300 people had been killed as a result of the airstrike. On 4 May, Associated Press published an investigation with evidence pointing to 600 dead in the airstrike. Many survivors estimated around 200 people–including rescuers–escaping through the main exit or one side entrance; the other side and the back were crushed. Estimates of civilian deaths vary, ranging from at least a dozen (Amnesty International) to 600 (Associated Press). At least eleven are confirmed by a Russian source. Ukraine accused the Russian Armed Forces of deliberately bombing the theatre while it was sheltering civilians. Russia first claimed that the reason the theatre was bombed was because it was "being used as a base by the Ukrainian military", and then denied the allegations and instead accused the Azov Battalion of blowing up the building, Both Russian claims have been refuted by independent investigation. The theatre is among the many Ukrainian heritage and cultural sites destroyed during the invasion. The attack was classified as a war crime by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe and Amnesty International.

Kramatorsk railway station attack

On 8 April 2022, at 10:24 and 10:25, media affiliated with the

Donetsk People's Republic The Donetsk People's Republic (DPR; , ) is Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, occupied territory in Ukraine that the Russian Federation has claimed to annex and declared as a Republics of Russia, republic of Russia, comprising parts o ...

published videos showing a pair of missiles being launched from

Shakhtarsk Shakhtarsk (, ) or Shakhtyorsk () is a city in Horlivka Raion, Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine, currently occupied by Russia. Regionally, the city is the administrative center of the Shakhtarsk urban hromada. Population: History Urban-type se ...

, a city under

separatist Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

control. At approximately 10:30, two missiles hit near the railway station building in

Kramatorsk Kramatorsk (, ; ) is a city and the administrative centre of Kramatorsk Raion in Donetsk Oblast of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. Prior to 2020, Kramatorsk was a city of oblast significance. Since October 2014, Kramatorsk has been the ...

, and the first reports were published in Ukrainian media at around 10:45. According to the Ukrainian government, between 1000 and 4000 civilians, mainly women and children, were present at the station awaiting evacuation from the region, which was being subjected to heavy Russian shelling. the attack left at least 60 dead and 110+ wounded. The missiles were initially misidentified as

Pavlo Kyrylenko Pavlo Oleksandrovych Kyrylenko (; born 5 May 1986) is a Ukrainian prosecutor and politician. He has served as head of the Ukrainian Anti-Monopoly Committee since September 2023. Kyrylenko is a former Governor of Donetsk Oblast. Under martial ...

, governor of Donetsk oblast, later specified that they had rather been Tochka-U missiles armed with cluster munitions. The remnants of one of the missiles had the Russian words ЗА ДЕТЕЙ (''za detey''), meaning " n revengefor the children", painted in white on its outside. It also bore serial number Ш91579, which investigators said could potentially help trace it back to its original arsenal. Initially, Russian state media and pro-Russian telegram channels claimed successful Russian airstrikes on a military transport target in Kramatorsk. However, after it became clear that the missiles had killed civilians, earlier reports were redacted, the Russian government also denied responsibility for the attack, and the Russian Ministry of Defence characterized it as a "Ukrainian hoax". The Russian Ministry of Defence later claimed that the missiles were launched by Ukrainian forces from the city of

Dobropillia Dobropillia (, ; ) is a city in Pokrovsk Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. Prior to 2020, it was a city of oblast significance and served as the administrative center of the former Dobropillia Raion, though it did not belong to the raion. It is lo ...

, southwest of Kramatorsk. Russian media also said that the serial number of the missile was in the same range as one used by Ukrainian forces, however, these claims were rapidly debunked. A fake video clip with a mock BBC logo, attributing blame to the Ukrainian forces, circulated through pro-Russian telegram channels and Russian state television since 10 April. However, the BBC said that it has not produced any such video. The Russian Ministry of Defense claimed that their forces no longer use Tochka-U missiles. However, Amnesty International had published videos about use of Tochka-U missiles in other cities before Kramatorsk. investigators from the open-source Belarusian Hajun project had also published videos of several Russian trucks with Tochka missiles heading from Belarus to Ukraine with 'V' markings on 5 and 30 March. The Institute for the Study of War assessed that the Russian

8th Guards Combined Arms Army The 8th Guards Order of Lenin Combined Arms Army (abbreviated 8th GCAA) was an army of the Soviet Army, as a successor to the 62nd Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, which was formed during World War II and was disbanded in 1998 after being do ...

, which is active in the

Donbas The Donbas (, ; ) or Donbass ( ) is a historical, cultural, and economic region in eastern Ukraine. The majority of the Donbas is occupied by Russia as a result of the Russo-Ukrainian War. The word ''Donbas'' is a portmanteau formed fr ...

area, is equipped with Tochka-U missiles.

, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights,

Dunja Mijatović Dunja Mijatović ( sr-cyr, Дуња Мијатовић; is a Bosnian human rights expert and activist. An expert on media law and media regulation, she served from 2010 to 2017 as the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFoM), and as ...

, the

Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights is an independent and impartial non-judicial institution established in 1999 by the Strasbourg-based Council of Europe, to promote awareness of and respect for human rights in the council's 46 ...

, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy,

European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the primary Executive (government), executive arm of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with a number of European Commissioner, members of the Commission (directorial system, informall ...

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...

Ursula von der Leyen Ursula Gertrud von der Leyen (; ; born 8 October 1958) is a German politician, serving as president of the European Commission since 2019. She served in the Cabinet of Germany, German federal government between 2005 and 2019, holding position ...

, French Foreign Minister

Jean-Yves Le Drian Jean-Yves Le Drian (; born 30 June 1947) is a French politician who served as Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs in the governments of Prime Ministers Édouard Philippe and Jean Castex (2017–2022) and as Minister of Defence under Preside ...

, British Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres and

Oleksandr Kamyshin Oleksandr Mykolaiovych Kamyshin (; born 2 July 1984) is a former Ukrainian politician who was the Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, Minister of Strategic Industries from 21 March 2023 to 4 September 2024. He was the CEO of state-owne ...

, chairman of

Ukrainian Railways The Public JSC Ukrainian Railways or PAT 'Ukrzaliznytsia (UZ)' () is a state-owned joint-stock company administering railway infrastructure and rail transport in Ukraine; a monopoly that controls the vast majority of the railroad transporta ...

described the event as "war crimes" and "a crime against humanity" by Russian forces. The Security Service of Ukraine opened criminal proceedings under Article 438 of the Criminal Code.

Royal United Services Institute The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI, Rusi) is a defence and security think tank with its headquarters in London, United Kingdom. It was founded in 1831 by the Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Duke of Wellington, Arthur Wellesley ...

analyst Justin Bronk said that Russia aimed to damage Ukrainian transport infrastructure to make it difficult for Ukrainian forces to move around Donbas. He also suggested that Russia opted for the Tochka-U missile type due to its use by the Ukrainian army, in order to "muddy the waters".

The Pentagon The Pentagon is the headquarters building of the United States Department of Defense, in Arlington County, Virginia, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C. The building was constructed on an accelerated schedule during World War II. As ...

highlighted Russian responsibility for the attack, as well as the strategic importance of the railway junction.

Kramatorsk restaurant strike

On 27 June 2023, Russian forces attacked a pizza restaurant in

with an Iskander missile, killing 13 people including four children and Ukrainian writer

Victoria Amelina Viktoriia Amelina (; ; 1 January 1986 – 1 July 2023), was a Ukrainian novelist and war crimes researcher. She was the author of two novels and a children's book, a winner of the Joseph Conrad Literary Award and a European Union Prize for Lit ...

. About sixty people were wounded. Kramatorsk was about 18 miles (30 km) from the eastern frontline. The restaurant was popular with local civilians, war correspondents, humanitarian volunteers, as well as Ukrainian soldiers on leave to 'rest and recuperate' and meet their loved ones. Several journalists were having a meal when the missile struck, including three Colombians. Russia's Defense Ministry claimed the strike targeted a "temporary command post" of the Ukrainian army. Ukraine's prosecutor general said the missile has high precision, "which means Russia was deliberately targeting civilians". Ukraine's Security Service later arrested a local man who allegedly helped co-ordinate the strike with the Russian military.

Chasiv Yar missile strike

On 9 July 2022, a missile strike on two residential buildings in

Chasiv Yar Chasiv Yar (, ) is a city in Bakhmut Raion, Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is located west of Bakhmut and is the center of Chasiv Yar urban hromada. In January 2022, it had a population of 12,250, though RBC News claimed the population in May 20 ...

was carried out by the Russian Armed Forces at 21:17 local time. At least 48 people were killed, Due to the impact, a five-story residential building partially collapsed. Two entrances were completely destroyed. The strike was alleged, including by

Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Ukraine's most populous province, with around 4.1 million residents. Its capital city, administrative centre is Donetsk, though d ...

governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, to have been performed with "Uragan", a self-propelled 220 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The Russian Defense Ministry claimed that they destroyed a "temporary deployment point" of a Ukrainian territorial defence unit. As of 10 July 67 rescue workers of the

State Emergency Service of Ukraine The State Emergency Service of Ukraine
''Kyiv Post'' (24 De ...

were trying to help the victims and more than 20 people were still feared to be trapped under the rubble. Rescue and search operations continued until the morning of 14 July 2022. Rescuers dismantled about 525 tons of destroyed elements of the building. 323 employees of the State Emergency Service and 9 units of equipment were involved. As of 13 July 48 dead were found under the rubble of the building, and nine wounded were rescued as of 12 July. A local resident told The New York Times that there were 10 elderly civilians in the buildings, but that members of the military had come to lodge there two days earlier. Two soldiers who probably took turns sleeping in the building after being on duty were among the dead. Andriy Yermak, the chief of staff to Ukraine's president, said that the strike was "another terrorist attack" and that Russia should be designated a "state sponsor of terrorism" as a result. Russian military spokesman

Igor Konashenkov Lieutenant General Igor Yevgenyevich Konashenkov (; born 15 May 1966) is a Russian military officer serving as the Head of the Department of Information and Mass Communication of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation. Early life ...

stated that Russia had killed "over 300 nationalists" in an attack on Chasiv Yar, but did not specify whether or not they were referring to the July airstrike or an earlier attack.

Donetsk City

On 27 July 2022, thousands of miniature plastic antipersonnel PFM-1 mines were dispersed over civilian areas of the Russian held city of

Donetsk Donetsk ( , ; ; ), formerly known as Aleksandrovka, Yuzivka (or Hughesovka), Stalin, and Stalino, is an industrial city in eastern Ukraine located on the Kalmius River in Donetsk Oblast, which is currently occupied by Russia as the capita ...

by a

BM-27 Uragan The BM-27 Uragan (; GRAU index 9P140) is a self-propelled 220 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union to deliver cluster munitions. The system began its service with the Soviet Army in the late 1970s, and was its first spi ...

multiple rocket launcher. This resulted in a number of people being injured, most prominently Semen Pegov, a Russian war blogger calling himself "War Gonzo". The Russian Foreign Ministry and local sources accused the Ukrainian army of being responsible for their deployment. The so-called "butterfly mines" are banned under the 1997 Ottawa Treaty (signed by Ukraine but not by Russia) due to the high danger they pose to civilians.

Sloviansk missile strike

On 14 April 2023, on Orthodox Christian

Good Friday Good Friday, also known as Holy Friday, Great Friday, Great and Holy Friday, or Friday of the Passion of the Lord, is a solemn Christian holy day commemorating the crucifixion of Jesus and his death at Calvary (Golgotha). It is observed during ...

, Russian forces launched eight S-300 missiles at

Sloviansk Sloviansk is a city in Donetsk Oblast, northern part of the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The city was known as ''Tor'' until 1784. While it did not actually belong to the raion itself, Sloviansk served as the administrative center of the S ...

. One struck a five-storey residential building, killing 15 civilians, including a child, and wounding 24.

Kostiantynivka shopping centre missile attack

On 9 August 2024, a

Kostiantynivka Kostiantynivka (, ; ) is an industrial city in Donetsk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Kryvyi Torets river. During the History of the Soviet Union, Soviet era, the city developed into a major centre for the production of iron, zi ...

shopping centre was struck by a Russian air-to-surface missile in the middle of the day. Ukrainian authorities reported at least 14 deaths and 43 injuries.

Dobropillia strikes

On 8 March 2025, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry and Donetsk Oblast Governor

Vadym Filashkin Vadym Serhiyovych Filaskhin (; born 14 June 1975) is a Ukrainian statesman, who is currently the Governor of Donetsk Oblast Donetsk Oblast, also referred to as Donechchyna (, ), is an Oblasts of Ukraine, oblast in eastern Ukraine. It is Uk ...

said that Russian missile and drone attacks on

had killed 11 people and injured 47, with children being among five of the dead and seven of the injured. The attack took place shortly after US president

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party (United States), Republican Party, he served as the 45 ...

halted intelligence sharing with Ukraine, causing concerns that Russian missiles could now strike cities without prior warning.

Bombardment of Izium

On 3 March 2022, Russian forces bombed the central hospital in

Izium Izium or Izyum (, ; ) is a city on the Donets River in Kharkiv Oblast, eastern Ukraine that serves as the administrative center of Izium Raion and Izium urban hromada. It is about southeast of the city of Kharkiv, the oblast's administrative cen ...

, Eight people died and the hospital sustained "significant damage". On 8 March, the same recently refurbished hospital in the city was destroyed during shelling, this was followed on 11 March by an attack to a psychiatric hospital. On 15 September 2022, after Ukrainian forces had retaken Izium, several mass graves were discovered of more than 440 bodies buried in a forest northeast of the city. among the dead, some had reportedly died as a result of shelling and airstrikes. Forensic investigations and questioning of witnesses were ongoing as of 16 September 2022.

Kharkiv Oblast

Bombardment of Kharkiv

During and after the Battle of Kharkiv, extensive parts of residential areas have been destroyed by Russian shelling. According to a HRW report published on 4 March, on 28 February, at around 10:00 AM, Russian forces fired cluster munitions with

Grad rockets The BM-21 "Grad" () is a self-propelled 122 mm multiple rocket launcher designed in the Soviet Union. The system and the M-21OF rocket were first developed in the early 1960s, and saw their first combat use in March 1969 during the Sino-So ...

into at least three different residential areas in

Kharkiv Kharkiv, also known as Kharkov, is the second-largest List of cities in Ukraine, city in Ukraine.

, * killing at least nine civilians and injuring another 37. The city's mayor,

Ihor Terekhov Ihor Oleksandrovych Terekhov (; born 14 January 1967) is a Ukrainian politician who is serving as the mayor of Kharkiv since 11 November 2021. He ascended to the mayoralty on 24 December 2020 following Hennadiy Kernes' death due to COVID-19 co ...

, said that four people were killed when they left a shelter to get water and a family of two parents and three children were burned alive in their car. The locations hit were residential buildings and a playground, dispersed between Industrialnyi and Shevchenkivskyi District. Explosions in the city were recorded as late as 2:23 PM. On 1 March, a shell damaged a boarding school for blind children. As of 4 March 122 civilians including five children had been killed in the Kharkiv Oblast, according to the Kharkiv Regional Police. Out of an initial population of 1.8 million, only 500,000 people remained in Kharkiv by 7 March. On 18 March, the number of civilians reportedly killed in Kharkiv exceeded 450 as a consequence of the use of cluster munitions and explosive weapons in heavily populated areas of the city. On 24 March a cluster munition attack killed eight people were killed and fifteen were injured while queuing for humanitarian aid together with hundreds of civilians near the Akademika Pavlova metro station. On 24 March 2022, a Russian missile strike hit a shopping mall parking lot near the Akademika Pavlova metro station. At the time, hundreds of people were waiting outside a post office in the mall to obtain

humanitarian aid Humanitarian aid is material and Humanitarian Logistics, logistic assistance, usually in the short-term, to people in need. Among the people in need are the homelessness, homeless, refugees, and victims of natural disasters, wars, and famines. Th ...

. Six people were killed and at least 15 further were injured. Two further cluster bombings damaged the nearby Holy Trinity Church where volunteers were preparing humanitarian aid. On 15 April 2022 in the afternoon hours, during the battle of Kharkiv, the Russian Army fired 9N210/9N235 cluster bombs into the Industrialnyi District, striking a residential area and a playground in the Myru Street. Nine civilians died and 35 were injured, including children. The local hospital received wounded people with pieces of steel rod and shrapnel in their limbs. Overall, the cluster bombs detonated over an area of 700 square metres. Human Rights Watch investigated the attack and concluded that the Russian forces used Smerch cluster munition rockets, which disperse dozens of submunitions or bomblets in the air. As there were no military targets within 400 meters of these strikes and due to the indiscriminate use of these weapons against densely populated areas, HRW described these strikes as possible war crimes. On 13 May, CNN reported that newly collected evidence identified Colonel General

Alexander Zhuravlyov Colonel General Alexander Alexandrovich Zhuravlyov (; born 5 December 1965) is a Russian Ground Forces officer who has commanded the military force in Syria during the Russian military intervention in Syria, Russian military intervention in the ...

commanding the 79th Rocket Artillery Brigade, ordered the use 17 cluster bombs, the 300mm Smerch Cluster Rocket, to be used against civilian targets in Kharkiv on 27–28 February. On 13 June Amnesty International published a report on what it called the "relentless campaign of indiscriminate bombardments against Kharkiv" causing "wholesale destruction" in the city from 24 February until late April. The human rights organisation's researchers found fragments of seven

cluster munition A cluster munition is a form of air-dropped or ground-launched explosive weapon that releases or ejects smaller submunitions. Commonly, this is a cluster bomb that ejects explosive bomblets that are designed to kill personnel and destroy veh ...

strikes in different neighbourhoods of Kharkiv and gathered evidence of the use of scatterable

land mine A land mine, or landmine, is an explosive weapon often concealed under or camouflaged on the ground, and designed to destroy or disable enemy targets as they pass over or near it. Land mines are divided into two types: anti-tank mines, wh ...

s and

. Amnesty International documented overall 28 indiscriminate strikes in populated areas of Kharkiv which they claim may constitute war crimes, and which caused hundreds of civilian casualties and injured many more. On 11 July 2022, a Russian wave of shelling killed six people and injured 31 in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The mayor Ihor Terekhov said that the areas shelled were

residential area A residential area is a land used in which housing predominates, as opposed to industrial and commercial areas. Housing may vary significantly between, and through, residential areas. These include single-family housing, multi-family residen ...

s with "no military significance", including several civilian houses, stores, a tire repair store, and a school.

Reuters Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide writing in 16 languages. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world. The agency ...

confirmed that at least one residential structure had been hit. Authorities said that six civilians had died, including a 17-year old teenager and his father. Oleh Synyehubov said that the Russians had used "

artillery Artillery consists of ranged weapons that launch Ammunition, munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during sieges, and l ...

multiple rocket launcher A multiple rocket launcher (MRL) or multiple launch rocket system (MLRS) is a type of rocket artillery system that contains multiple rocket launcher, launchers which are fixed to a single weapons platform, platform, and shoots its rocket (weapon ...

s and tank attacks" on Kharkiv. On 17 August 2022, at 4:30 am, several rockets fired from Belgorod hit the Slobidskyi and Saltivskyi districts of Kharkiv. In the Slobidskyi District, a four-story hostel of a tram depot was hit together with adjacent repair workshop and an neighboring non-residential building. The second missile attack was carried out at 21:30 and destroyed a three-story hostel in the Saltivskyi district, where people with hearing impairments lived, The missile attack caused a fire, and the building was completely destroyed, In the Slobidskyi district, two people were killed initially killed, with the bodies of six people subsequently being excavated from under the ruins, 18 were also injured, including two children. Ten units of fire and rescue equipment worked at the scene of the shelling along with forty rescuers of the State Emergency Service. In the Saltivskyi district, at least 19 people were killed and 22 injured, including an 11-year-old child, in total, 27 (including 1 child) were killed and 44 (including 3 children) were injured. On 19 August, mourning was declared in Kharkiv. The

Russian Defense Ministry The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The Minister of Defence exerci ...

confirmed the missile attack on Kharkiv in its briefing, According to their version, "a high-precision ground-based weapon hit a temporary base for foreign mercenaries" and as a result, "more than 90 militants were destroyed".

President of Ukraine The president of Ukraine (, ) is the head of state of Ukraine. The president represents the nation in international relations, administers the foreign political activity of the state, conducts negotiations and concludes international treaties. ...

Volodymyr Zelensky Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...

said: "When you hear about Kharkiv

Saltivka Saltivka () is a large residential area located in the northeastern region of Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine. It covers most of the eponymous Saltivskyi District with parts extending into the Kyivskyi District and Nemyshlyanskyi District. It is somet ...

, it's pain again. Pain for all Ukraine. Pain for Kharkiv," he wrote. "Rocket attack... On the hostel... The building is completely destroyed." The President described the killing of residents as "a vile and cynical blow to civilians, which has no justification and demonstrates the impotence of the aggressor". According to the head of the military administration of the Kharkiv Oblast, Oleh Synyehubov: "The Russians brutally and purposefully attacked civilians. And now in their so-called "media" they are spreading another fake about "military facilities". There are no military installations. Exclusively civilian facilities, including pensioners and children. This is real terrorism, which only fiends are capable of!". On 6 April 2024, Ukrainian authorities said that Russian missile attacks had killed seven people and wounded a dozen in Kharkiv, with the strikes damaging administrative buildings, dormitories, shops, high-rise buildings and a kindergarten. The Kharkiv police said that Russia attacked the city with two S-300 missiles, and then engaged with drones during the rescue operations. On 30 August 2024, at least five people, including a 14-year old girl, were killed in Kharkiv by a reported Russian

glide bomb A glide bomb or stand-off bomb is a standoff weapon with flight control surfaces to give it a flatter, gliding flight path than that of a conventional bomb without such surfaces. This allows it to be released at a distance from the target rat ...

attack that struck a 12-story apartment building and the playground in front of it. Dozens of people were also wounded in the attack. On 28 October 2024, a Russian guided bomb attack on Kharkiv shattered much of the

Derzhprom The Derzhprom () or Gosprom () building is an office building located on Freedom Square in Kharkiv, Ukraine. Built in the Constructivist style, it was the first modern skyscraper building in the Soviet Union upon its completion in 1928. Its nam ...

, a building placed on the "tentative" list of

UNESCO World Heritage Sites World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural heritag ...

. Six people were injured in the attack, with another 13 being wounded in an earlier overnight bomb attack. On 31 October 2024, three people were killed, two of them children, and 35 people were injured in a Russian attack on an apartment block in Kharkiv. According to Syniehubov, Kharkiv's governor, Russia used a highly explosive

bomb to strike the block. On 29 April 2025, regional officials said that dozens of people had been injured after Russian drone strikes on Kharkiv, including two children and a pregnant woman. On 10-11 June 2025, Russian drone strikes killed three people and injured 60, nine children aged between two and 15 being among the injured, caused by 17 drones striking two residential areas according to officials.

Hroza missile attack

On 5 October 2023, Russian forces attacked the small village of Hroza with an Iskander missile, killing 59 people and wounding many more. It targeted a café that was hosting a memorial gathering for a local Ukrainian soldier. The strike killed a fifth of the village's inhabitants, including the fallen soldier's widow and son, and is one of the deadliest attacks on civilians during the war. Ukrainian authorities said the attack was clearly deliberate, and there was speculation that a spy gave Russian forces the location.

, Russia's Permanent Representative to the UN, claimed that many of those attending the memorial were "Nazis".

Kherson shelling

The southern city of

Kherson Kherson (Ukrainian language, Ukrainian and , , ) is a port city in southern Ukraine that serves as the administrative centre of Kherson Oblast. Located by the Black Sea and on the Dnieper, Dnieper River, Kherson is the home to a major ship-bui ...

was liberated from Russian occupation in November 2022. Russian troops continued to shell the city from the other side of the

Dnipro River The Dnieper or Dnepr ( ), also called Dnipro ( ), is one of the major transboundary rivers of Europe, rising in the Valdai Hills near Smolensk, Russia, before flowing through Belarus and Ukraine to the Black Sea. Approximately long, with ...

. On 3 May 2023, Russian artillery struck a supermarket, a train station and residential buildings Kherson, killing 23 people and wounding 46. Among those killed were three engineers repairing damage inflicted on the power grid in earlier Russian strikes.

Deliberate drone attacks on Kherson civilians

In October 2024, Forbes reported that Russians were using drones to deliberately target civilians in Kherson, and then ″proudly″ sharing the footage of the attacks on social media. Attacks being ″shared and celebrated″ included on commuters, people at bus stops, and on children playing in parks. This terror campaign has become known as the ″Human Safari″. One of the instances described as a ″typical case″ was a Ukrainian mother-of-two who was cycling home when a Russian drone spotted her and followed her until dropping a grenade, which injured her with shrapnel, leaving her unable to walk. Imagery of the attack was posted on a Russian Telegram channel with a winking face emoji and falsely describing her as a soldier. Other than targeting individual civilians, Russian drones using a napalm-like mixture to start fires burning down entire neighbourhoods, and scattering mines powerful enough to destroy a tire or blow a foot off have also been noted.

Gammalsvenskby white phosphorus attacks

The former village of

Gammalsvenskby Gammalsvenskby (; ; ) is a former village that is now a neighbourhood of Zmiivka () in Beryslav Raion of Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. It was briefly known as Verbivka () prior to being integrated with Zmiivka. Gammalsvenskby is known for its Esto ...

within

Zmiivka Zmiivka (, ) is a village in Beryslav Raion, within Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. It belongs to Beryslav urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Zmiivka is known for its Old Swede community of Gammalsvenskby which was established there in th ...

has been the target of several Russian attacks making use of

white phosphorus munitions White phosphorus munitions are weapons that use one of the common allotropes of the chemical element phosphorus. White phosphorus is used in smoke, illumination, and incendiary munitions, and is commonly the burning element of tracer ammunit ...

to deliberately target civil

infrastructure Infrastructure is the set of facilities and systems that serve a country, city, or other area, and encompasses the services and facilities necessary for its economy, households and firms to function. Infrastructure is composed of public and pri ...

to cause as much devastation to the local civilian population as possible, and have led to several civilian deaths. These attacks constitute direct terror bombings directly targeted at civilians, including the deliberate bombing of the local school resulting in the death of one employee and left another severely wounded.

Poltava Oblast

Kremenchuk shopping mall attack

On 27 June 2022, the Russian Armed Forces fired two Kh-22 anti-ship missiles into central

Kremenchuk Kremenchuk (; , , also spelt Kremenchug, ) is an industrial city in central Ukraine which stands on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. The city serves as the administrative center of Kremenchuk Raion and Kremenchuk urban hromada within ...

Poltava Oblast Poltava Oblast (), also referred to as Poltavshchyna (), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of central Ukraine. The capital city, administrative center of the oblast is the city of Poltava. Most of its territory was par ...

, hitting the Amstor

shopping mall A shopping mall (or simply mall) is a large indoor shopping center, usually Anchor tenant, anchored by department stores. The term ''mall'' originally meant pedestrian zone, a pedestrian promenade with shops along it, but in the late 1960s, i ...

. A fire broke out, and, according to

Dmytro Lunin Dmytro Serhiyovych Lunin (; born on 31 March 1980), is a Ukrainian businessman and statesman, who served as the acting governor of Poltava Oblast 24 December 2021 to 10 October 2023. He is a doctor of law. Biography Dmytro Lunin was born on ...

Governor of Poltava Oblast The governor of Poltava Oblast is the head of executive branch for the Poltava Oblast. The office of governor is an appointed position, with officeholders being appointed by the president of Ukraine, on recommendation from the prime minister of ...

, the attack killed at least 20 people and injured at least 56. 36 people were also initially reported missing. According to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, the attack was carried out by Russian Tu-22M3 strategic bombers that took off from the

Shaykovka Shaykovka air base (; State airfields index: ЬУБЙ), also given variously as Kirov Shaykovka, Anisovo Gorod, Anisovo Gorodishche, Shaykovo, Shajkovka, Gorodische, Chaikovka, is an airbase of the Russian Aerospace Forces in Kaluga Oblast, Russi ...

air base in the

Kaluga Oblast Kaluga Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kaluga. The Russian Census (2021), 2021 Russian Census found a population o ...

. The missiles were launched over the territory of the

Kursk Oblast Kursk Oblast (, ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast). Its administrative center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Kursk. As of the 2021 Russian census, 2021 census, Kursk Oblast had a pop ...

. Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said that the missile hit the far end of the shopping mall. The area of the resulting fire was more than and up to 115 firefighters and 20 fire-fighting appliances were involved in extinguishing it. On the day of the attack, Russian television did not report it until the Russian Ministry of Defense confirmed that it had happened. Pro-Russian Telegram channels have spread multiple conflicting theories about the missile strike, including the claim that the missile was aimed at a car factory near the mall, that the mall was being used as a military equipment warehouse, or as a base of the Territorial Defense Forces, and that the missile strike is a Ukrainian provocation involving the use of "canned bodies". On the day after the attack, Russian authorities and state-controlled media issued a number of contradictory statements about the attack, including claims that the attack was "fake" and that the Ukrainian army had bombed the mall themselves. Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said: "The detonation of the munitions for western weaponry in storage led to a fire in a non-functioning shopping centre next to the factory." The claims that the shopping mall was "non-functional" have been debunked by several organizations. According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, there were more than 1,000 people inside the mall when the strike occurred, The non-profit online journalism collective

Bellingcat Bellingcat (stylised bell¿ngcat) is a Netherlands-based investigative journalism group that specialises in fact-checking and open-source intelligence (OSINT). It was founded by British citizen journalist and former blogger Eliot Higgins in Ju ...

used receipts from recent purchases at the mall to prove that the mall had been open prior to the attack. the BBC also published interviews with people who were working or shopping in the mall at the time. Per reports from independent military experts and researchers with Molfar, a global open sourced intelligence community, the factory and mall were too far apart from one another to cause any fires or explosions. The leaders of the G7 nations, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Dmytro Kuleba and Mayor described the attack as "war crimes", "crimes against humanity" and "indiscriminate attacks", as well claiming that the attack was intentional and that there were "no close military targets"

February 2025 residential building attack

On 1 February 2025, Russia struck a residential building in Poltava, which emergency emergency services said killed 14 people, including two children.

Kyiv Oblast

Irpin refugee column shelling

Civilian evacuation across Irpin River 2022-03-08 5

On 6 March 2022, from 9:30 a.m. until 2 p.m. local time, the Russian Armed Forces repeatedly shelled an

intersection In mathematics, the intersection of two or more objects is another object consisting of everything that is contained in all of the objects simultaneously. For example, in Euclidean geometry, when two lines in a plane are not parallel, their ...

Irpin Irpin (, ) is a city on the Irpin River in Bucha Raion, Kyiv Oblast, northern Ukraine. It is located next to the capital Kyiv. Irpin hosts the administration of Irpin urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. The city has a population o ...

that hundreds of civilians were using to escape to Kyiv, whilst a Ukrainian artillery position was located nearby. They killed at least eight Ukrainian civilians (including 2 children). Human Rights Watch alleged the Russian army carried out an "unlawful, indiscriminate and disproportionate attack". The incident was part of an assault on Irpin. On that day, there were hundreds of civilians at the intersection on the P30 road, near the St. George's Ukrainian Orthodox Church, just south of a bridge that the Ukrainian army had destroyed to hinder the Russian invasion. The civilians were fleeing the Russian army's advance from Irpin towards Kyiv. In the intersection near the bridge were a dozen Ukrainian soldiers, some helping the civilians carry their luggage and children. The Ukrainian artillery was firing mortar rounds from a position about away. No agreements had been reached between the parties about a temporary ceasefire or humanitarian corridor. Journalists of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'' and freelance journalists on the scene report that for several hours the Russian army bombarded the intersection that the civilians were using to flee. The Russians fired explosive projectiles into the area, with projectiles hitting the intersection or the surrounding area every 10 minutes, Among the victims were a group of four, including two children, who were killed by a

mortar Mortar may refer to: * Mortar (weapon), an indirect-fire infantry weapon * Mortar (masonry), a material used to fill the gaps between blocks and bind them together * Mortar and pestle, a tool pair used to crush or grind * Mortar, Bihar, a village i ...

strike. According to

, it is possible that the projectiles were "observed" by the Russians, who would then know where they were landing and could easily have adjusted the aim away from the intersection. Instead they engaged in prolonged shelling of the intersection being used by civilians, which indicates "potential recklessness or deliberateness" on their part. The repeated nature of the attacks suggests that Russian forces "violated their obligations under international humanitarian law not to conduct indiscriminate or disproportionate attacks that harm civilians, and failed to take all feasible measures to avoid civilian casualties". The human rights organisation also stated that the Ukrainian forces "have an obligation to take all feasible precautions to avoid or minimize civilian harm," such as refraining from engaging in combat in populated areas.

Kyiv missile strikes

Ukraine's capital

Kyiv Kyiv, also Kiev, is the capital and most populous List of cities in Ukraine, city of Ukraine. Located in the north-central part of the country, it straddles both sides of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2022, its population was 2, ...

, a city of some three million people, was among the first targets of Russian airstrikes. Kindergartens and orphanages were also shelled. On 10 October 2022, 8:00 a.m.

local time Local time is the time observed in a specific locality. There is no canonical definition. Originally it was mean solar time, but since the introduction of time zones it is generally the time as determined by the time zone in effect, with daylight s ...

, several explosions rang out in the Shevchenkivskyi and

Solomianskyi District The Solomianskyi District is a district in Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine. Located in the western part of the city, in the basin of Lybid river, Dniepr's tributary. Named after village of Solomianka that became part of Kyiv in 1858. Established as ...

of Kyiv. This was announced by the mayor of the capital

Vitali Klitschko Vitalii Volodymyrovych Klychko (; ; born 19 July 1971), known as Vitali Klitschko, is a Ukrainian politician and former professional boxer. He serves as mayor of Kyiv,Anton Herashchenko Anton Yuriyovych Gerashchenko (, born 10 February 1979) is a current official advisor and a former deputy minister at the Ukrainian Ministry of Internal Affairs. He is a former member of the Ukrainian parliament (Verkhovna Rada) from 2014 to 20 ...

, the adviser to the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one of the rockets in Kyiv fell near the monument to

Mykhailo Hrushevsky Mykhailo Serhiiovych Hrushevsky (; – 24 November 1934) was a Ukrainian academician, politician, historian and statesman who was one of the most important figures of the Ukrainian national revival of the early 20th century. Hrushevsky is ...

on the Volodymyrskaya street. A missile struck the

Kyiv Glass Bridge Pedestrian and cycling bridge over Saint Volodymyr Descent (), also known as Klitschko Glass Bridge (, ''Sklianyi mist Klychka''), is a bridge connecting two parks in Kyiv, Ukraine—the Saint Volodymyr Hill and Khreshchatyi Park—over the stre ...

at 8:18 local time. The blast wave damaged the building and the roof of the central station Kyiv-Passenger. The Russian Armed Forces damaged Ukrainian cultural and educational buildings, including the

Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv The Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv (; also known as Kyiv University, Shevchenko University, or KNU) is a public university in Kyiv, Ukraine. The university is the third-oldest university in Ukraine after the University of Lviv and ...

, the

Khanenko Museum The Khanenko Museum (official name: The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts) is an art museum located in Kyiv, in Ukraine, which holds the biggest and most valuable collections of European, Asian and Ancient art in the country. T ...

and the

Taras Shevchenko National Museum The National Museum of Taras Shevchenko () is a museum in Kyiv, the capital city of Ukraine, dedicated to the life and work of the painter and national poet, Taras Shevchenko. History The museum and its collection originated as part of an initiat ...

. According to Rostyslav Smirnov, adviser to the Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine, at least eight people were killed and 24 were injured as a result of several hits in different places in Kyiv. Areas struck by missiles included nearby a children's playground. A fire broke out in six cars, and more than 15 cars were damaged. The Kyiv Metro's red line and the Teatralna–

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by ...

interchange node subway trains stopped running and the underground tunnels became shelters for citizens. Smoke also rose over the .

Bombing of Borodianka

As Russian forces fought in and near Kyiv,

Borodianka Borodianka (, ) is a rural settlement in Bucha Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It hosts the administration of , one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: According to the 2001 census, its population was 12,535. The town is located on the which ...

, which is on a strategically important road, was targeted by numerous Russian airstrikes. Most of the buildings in the town were destroyed, including almost all of its main street. Russian bombs struck the centers of buildings and caused them to collapse while the frames remained standing. Many civilians were also reportedly killed by cluster munitions during the attacks.

Oleksiy Reznikov Oleksii Yuriiovych Reznikov (, ; born 18 June 1966) is a Ukrainian lawyer and politician who served as the Minister of Defence of Ukraine from 4 November 2021 until his dismissal on 5 September 2023. Reznikov previously has served in sever ...

minister of defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

, said many residents were

buried alive Premature burial, also known as live burial, burial alive, or vivisepulture, means to be buried while still alive. Animals or humans may be buried alive accidentally on the mistaken assumption that they are dead, or intentionally as a form of ...

by airstrikes and lay dying for up to a week. Some residents hid in caves for 38 days. Only a few hundred residents remained in Borodianka by the time the Russians withdrew, with roughly 90% of residents having fled, and an unknown number dead in the rubble. Borodianka's mayor estimated at least 200 dead.

Agence France-Presse Agence France-Presse (; AFP) is a French international news agency headquartered in Paris, France. Founded in 1835 as Havas, it is the world's oldest news agency. With 2,400 employees of 100 nationalities, AFP has an editorial presence in 260 c ...

arrived in Borodianka on 5 April. The AFP did not see any bodies, but reported widespread destruction, and that some homes "simply no longer existed". The human death toll remained unclear: one resident reported that he knew of at least five civilians killed, but that others were beneath the rubble and that no one had yet attempted to extricate them. According to

Europe 1 Europe 1, (''Europe un'') formerly known as Europe nº 1, is a privately owned radio station created in 1955. It was owned and operated by Lagardère News, a subsidiary of the Lagardère Group, it was one of the leading radio broadcasting s ...

, ten days after the Russian army had left, firefighters were still working to recover bodies from the rubble in order to bury them with dignity. Their work was complicated by the risk of other buildings collapsing. More bodies were discovered daily. Local

morgue A morgue or mortuary (in a hospital or elsewhere) is a place used for the storage of human corpses awaiting identification (ID), removal for autopsy, respectful burial, cremation or other methods of disposal. In modern times, corpses have cu ...

s were overwhelmed, and corpses had to be transported 100 kilometres or more.

Bucha massacre

Ukrainian forensic investigations on the

Bucha massacre The Bucha massacre (; ) was the mass murder of Ukrainian civilians and prisoners of war by the Russian Armed Forces during the fight for and occupation of the city of Bucha as part of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photographic and video ...

revealed that dozens of civilians had been killed by metal darts ( "fléchettes") of a kind used by the Russian army. Bodies from the Bucha-Irpin region showed lesions from small nail-like objects contained in tank or field gun shells. According to witnesses, Russian artillery fired shells that spread fléchettes a few days before retreating from the area at the end of March. While fléchettes are not prohibited under international law, their use in residential areas may qualify as the war crime of

. The spokesperson for the

Ukrainian Ground Forces The Ukrainian Ground Forces (SVZSU, ), also referred to as the Ukrainian army, is a land force, and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It was formed from Ukrainian units of the Soviet Army after Declaratio ...

stated that Ukraine's military does not use shells with fléchettes. According to Oleg Tkalenko, deputy chief prosecutor of the Kyiv Oblast, forensic experts found fragments of cluster munitions in bodies from mass graves in Bucha after the retreat of Russian troops, the exact number of civilians killed specifically due to the use of cluster munitions in the village was unknown, but at least 8 out of about 500 of those found were reportedly killed by their use, The Guardian later confirmed the use of RBK-500 cluster munitions with PTAB-submunitions and cluster missiles fired by the BM-30 Smerch in Bucha. The mayor of the city, Anatoly Fedoruk, stated that "Bucha was turned into a Chechen safari, where land mines were used against civilians". Cluster munition fragments were also found in the nearby city of

Hostomel Hostomel (, ) is a Rural settlement#Ukraine, rural settlement in Bucha Raion, Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. It is located northwest of the capital Kyiv. It hosts the administration of Hostomel settlement hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Populatio ...

, many of them in animal carcasses.

March 2025 drone attack

On 22 March 2025, Ukrainian officials said that a large-scale Russian drone attack on Kyiv killed three people, including a five-year-old child and her father, and injured eight people. According to the

Ukrainian Air Force The Ukrainian Air Force (, PS ZSU) is the air force of Ukraine and one of the eight Military branch, branches of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (ZSU). Its current form was created in 2004 by merging the Ukrainian Air Defence Forces into the Air Fo ...

, Russia had launched 147 drones targeting several parts of the country. Debris from destroyed drones caused damage throughout the city, causing fires in high-rise apartment buildings. The attack happened less than a week after Russia announced a ″partial 30-day ceasefire″ amid a US push for a peace deal.

April 2025 joint missile and drone barrage

On 24 April 2025, Russia struck Kyiv for an hour with both missiles and drones, killing at least 12 people and wounding approximately 90 people. The strikes began around 1 AM, and hit at least five neighborhoods, causing major damage to residential buildings. The

described the attack as the deadliest attack on Kyiv since July, and it drew criticism of Putin by US president Trump, who AP described as ″reluctant to criticize the Kremlin″. Following the attack, also carried out amid US-led peace efforts, Trump said the attack was ″bad timing″ and told Putin to ″stop″.

May 2025 air attack

In May 2025, Russia launched a three-day long wave of drone and missile attacks on Ukraine, with the primary target being Kyiv. The attack started on 24 May and involved hundreds of drones and dozens of missiles, and was described by Reuters as the war's largest air attack on Ukraine up until that point. According to officials, no deaths were reported in Kyiv, but at least 15 people were injured in the city and apartment buildings were damaged. At least 12 people were killed in the attack, including four people in the region around Kyiv and three children in

Zhytomyr Zhytomyr ( ; see #Names, below for other names) is a city in the north of the western half of Ukraine. It is the Capital city, administrative center of Zhytomyr Oblast (Oblast, province), as well as the administrative center of the surrounding ...

. The attack started hours after Russia and Ukraine began a significant prisoner exchange, seen as a first step to a ceasefire between the countries.

June 2025 strikes

On 10 June 2025, officials said that Russia launched one of its largest strikes on Kyiv, causing widespread damage in seven out of ten of the city's districts, and injuring four people. A week later, Russia again launched a sustained missile and drone bombardment on the city in the early hours of 17 June, the attack caused the demolishing of a nine-story apartment building, killing at least 16 people and injuring over 100.

Luhansk Oblast

Bilohorivka school bombing

On 7 May 2022, Russian forces bombed a school in

Bilohorivka Bilohorivka () may refer to several settlements in Ukraine * Bilohorivka, Donetsk Oblast, a village * Bilohorivka, a former village in Donetsk Oblast that was disestablished in 2008 * Bilohorivka, Luhansk Oblast, an urban-type settlement * , ...

where about ninety people were seeking shelter from the ongoing fighting during the Battle of Sievierodonetsk. The building caught on fire and trapped large numbers of people inside. At least 30 people were rescued. Two people were confirmed to have been killed, but

Governor of Luhansk Oblast The governor of Luhansk Oblast is the Chief of local state administration, head of the executive branch for the Luhansk Oblast. Due to the current Russo-Ukrainian War, the administration has been assigned as a Civil–military administrations (Uk ...

Serhiy Haidai Serhiy Volodymyrovych Haidai (; born 6 November 1975) is a Ukraine, Ukrainian entrepreneur and politician. He was the Governor of Luhansk Oblast, head of the Luhansk Regional Military–Civil Administration from 25 October 2019 to 15 March 202 ...

said that the 60 remaining people were believed to have been killed. The attack was condemned by the

Ukrainian Foreign Ministry The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (, ) is the ministry of the Ukrainian government that oversees the foreign relations of Ukraine. The head of the ministry is the Minister of Foreign Affairs. History Originally, the ministry was establ ...

and

UN secretary-general The secretary-general of the United Nations (UNSG or UNSECGEN) is the chief administrative officer of the United Nations and head of the United Nations Secretariat, one of the United Nations System#Six principal organs, six principal organs of ...

Antonio Guterres Antonio is a masculine given name of Etruscan origin deriving from the root name Antonius. It is a common name among Romance language–speaking populations as well as the Balkans and Lusophone Africa. It has been among the top 400 most popular ...

, who said he was "appalled" by the attack, he also reminded that "civilians and civilian infrastructure must always be spared in times of war".

Liz Truss Mary Elizabeth Truss (born 26 July 1975) is a British politician who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Leader of the Conservative Party (UK), Leader of the Conservative Party from September to October 2022. On her fiftieth da ...

, the British foreign secretary, said that she was "horrified" and described the attack as constituting

Stara Krasnianka care home attack

On 7 March 2022, the Ukrainian armed forces set up a firing position at a care house in the village of Stara Krasnianka, near

Kreminna Kreminna (, ) is a city in Sievierodonetsk Raion, Luhansk Oblast, eastern Ukraine. Prior to 2020, it served as the administrative center of former Kreminna Raion. Its population was estimated at as of January 2022. Following the Russian invasio ...

Luhansk Oblast Luhansk Oblast (; ), also referred to as Luhanshchyna (), is the easternmost Administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Luhansk. The oblast was established in 1938 and bore the n ...

, due to house's strategic location, with the evacuation reportedly impossible due to

mining Mining is the Resource extraction, extraction of valuable geological materials and minerals from the surface of the Earth. Mining is required to obtain most materials that cannot be grown through agriculture, agricultural processes, or feasib ...

. On 9 March, the Ukrainian forces based at the care house engaged in a first exchange of fire with Russian affiliated armed groups without casualties among the civilian residents. On 11 March 2022 pro-Russian separatist forces attacked the care house with heavy weapons while 71 patients with disabilities and 15 members of staff were still inside. A fire broke out and approximately fifty people died. A group of residents fled the house and ran into the forest, until they were met five kilometers away by Russian affiliated armed groups, who provided them with assistance. Ukraine officials accused the Russian forces of deliberately targeting a medical facility and forcefully deporting the survivors. On 29 June, a report of the

OHCHR The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...

which didn't find "that Russia committed any war crimes". It doesn't say that Ukraine used human shields but "only expressed concern about allegations of this occurring". The report found that Ukrainian forces occupied the building before the attack, thus care home patients were not the intendent target.

Lviv attacks

On 6 July 2023, Russian forces launched ten

Kalibr The Novator Kalibr (Калибр, caliber), also referred to as 3M54-1 Kalibr, 3M14 Biryuza (Бирюза, turquoise), (NATO reporting name SS-N-27 Sizzler and SS-N-30A) is a family of Russian cruise missiles developed by NPO Novator (OKB-8). It ...

cruise missiles at

Lviv Lviv ( or ; ; ; see #Names and symbols, below for other names) is the largest city in western Ukraine, as well as the List of cities in Ukraine, fifth-largest city in Ukraine, with a population of It serves as the administrative centre of ...

, in western Ukraine. One of the guided missiles hit an apartment block in a residential area, killing ten civilians, wounding almost fifty, and causing widespread damage. Most of the other missiles were shot down, but two struck Ukrainian military targets nearby.

said the attack should be investigated as a war crime. On 4 September, Russian air attacks struck the historic centre of Lviv, a

UNESCO World Heritage Site World Heritage Sites are landmarks and areas with legal protection under an treaty, international treaty administered by UNESCO for having cultural, historical, or scientific significance. The sites are judged to contain "cultural and natural ...

, killing civilians and damaging civilian infrastructure and buildings. Lviv Mayor Andryi Sadovyi reported that seven people were killed, including four members of the same family, with a mother and her three children being killed in the attack, leaving only the father alive. 66 people required medical assistance, including 10 children. Local authorities said the attack damaged about 50 civilian objects, including homes, medical facilities and architectural landmarks.

Bombing of Mykolaiv

Cluster munitions were repeatedly used also on

Mykolaiv Mykolaiv ( ), also known as Nikolaev ( ) is a List of cities in Ukraine, city and a hromada (municipality) in southern Ukraine. Mykolaiv is the Administrative centre, administrative center of Mykolaiv Raion (Raions of Ukraine, district) and Myk ...

during separate attacks on 7, 11 and 13 March 2022, causing civilian casualties and extensive destruction of non-military objects. In the 13 March attack nine civilians, including two children, were killed and 13 injured while waiting in line on the street at a cash machine. The explosions also damaged houses and civilian buildings. Human Rights Watch analysed the incident and found that the Russian forces used Smerch and Uragan cluster munition on densely populated areas. Due to the inherently indiscriminate nature of cluster munitions, Human Rights Watch described their use in Mykolaiv as a possible Russian war crime. On 28 June 2022, Russian shelling damaged the Central City Stadium. On the following day, a Russian rocket strike hit an 5-story residential building, killing at least 8 people and injuring 6. On 15 July, the two largest universities of the city were struck by missiles:

Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding The Admiral Makarov National University of Shipbuilding, NUS, in Mykolaiv is a higher education institution which trains specialists for the shipbuilding and allied industries of Ukraine. The university is named after Russian admiral Stepan Mak ...

and the Mykolaiv National University. On 29 July, Russian forces bombed a bus stop. 5 were killed and 7 were injured.

Odesa Oblast

Bombing of Odesa

On 3 March 2022, the nearby villages of Zatoka and Bilenke were shelled, killing at least one civilian in Bilenke. On 23 April, a Russian missile strike hit two residential buildings. killing eight civilians and wounding 18 or 20, according to Ukraine. One missile that struck a residential building killed a three-month old baby, the mother, and the baby's maternal grandmother. On 9 May, Russia fired three Kinzhal missiles to

Odesa Oblast Odesa Oblast (), also referred to as Odeshchyna (Одещина), is an administrative divisions of Ukraine, oblast (province) of southwestern Ukraine, located along the northern coast of the Black Sea. Its administrative centre is the city of Ode ...

. At that time, President of the European Council

Charles Michel Charles Michel (; born 21 December 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the president of the European Council from 2019 to 2024. He previously served as the Prime Minister of Belgium, prime minister of Belgium between 2014 and 2019. Miche ...

and Prime Minister of Ukraine

Denys Shmyhal Denys Anatoliiovych Shmyhal (, ; born 15 October 1975) is a Ukrainian politician and entrepreneur who has served as the 18th and current prime minister of Ukraine since 2020. Before his appointment as prime minister, Shmyhal was the governor ...

were in Odesa and had to hide in a bomb shelter. In the evening of the same day, Russian troops fired rockets at three warehouses in Odesa and a shopping centre in the village of Fontanka near the city, One person was killed and two were injured in the warehouses. Three people were also injured in the mall.

Serhiivka missile strike

According to preliminary information, on the morning of 1 July 2022 at 01:00 AM (

) three

Tu-22M3 The Tupolev Tu-22M (; NATO reporting name: Backfire) is a supersonic, variable-sweep wing, long-range strategic and maritime strike bomber developed by the Tupolev Design Bureau in the 1960s. The bomber was reported as being designated Tu-26 by ...

strategic bombers of the Russian Air Force flew from the

Volgograd Oblast Volgograd Oblast ( rus, Волгоградская область, p=vəɫɡɐˈgratskəjə ˈobɫəsʲtʲ) is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject (an oblast) of Russia, located in the Volga region, lower Volga region of Southern Russia ...

Crimea Crimea ( ) is a peninsula in Eastern Europe, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, almost entirely surrounded by the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov. The Isthmus of Perekop connects the peninsula to Kherson Oblast in mainland Ukrain ...

and after fired three

Kh-22 The Kh-22 "Storm" (, NATO reporting name AS-4 'Kitchen') is a large, long-range anti-ship cruise missile developed by MKB Raduga in the Soviet Union. It was designed for use against aircraft carriers and carrier battle groups, with either a con ...

s, supersonic anti-ship missiles designed for use against aircraft carriers, into a 9-store apartment building and a recreational center in the settlement of Serhiivka,

Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Raion Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi Raion (; ) is a raion (district) in Odesa Oblast of Ukraine. It is part of the historical region of Bessarabia. Its administrative center is the town of Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi. Population: On 18 July 2020, as part of the adm ...

. A missile hit the apartment, and one section of the building was completely destroyed. The fire also spread from the apartment building to an attached store. at least 16 Ukrainian civilians were killed in the residential building. Two missiles hit the recreational center, killing at least 5 (including a 12-year-old boy). 38 more were also wounded, including 6 children. 2 July was declared a day of mourning in the region. Ukrainian President Zelenskyy accused Russia of having committed "an act of conscious, deliberately targeted Russian terror – and not some kind of mistake". He noted that as in the recent Kremenchuk shopping mall attack, the Russian army "used unnecessarily powerful weapons to strike a civilian object". A spokesman of the Russian Presidency,

Dmitry Peskov Dmitry Sergeyevich Peskov (, ; born 17 October 1967) is a Russian diplomat serving as the Kremlin Press Secretary, spokesman for President of Russia, Russian president Vladimir Putin since 2012.

visited the locations and studied satellite imagery, finding no evidence that the targeted buildings were used by the military. Official representative of Germany described the missile strike as an "inhumane and cynical"

18 November 2024 missile strike

On 18 November 2024, Russia struck residential buildings and civilian infrastructure in Odesa, resulting in 10 deaths and 39 injuries, including a child, according to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration.

10 June 2025 maternity ward and residential buildings drone strikes

On 10 June 2025, Russian drones struck medical facilities, including a maternity ward, as well as residential buildings, with officials saying the attacks resulted in two people dying and 13 being injured.

Rivne missile strikes

On 14 March 2022, Russian troops carried out two airstrikes against the

Rivnenska TV Tower Rivne Oblast (), also referred to as Rivnenshchyna (), is an oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Rivne. The surface area of the region is . Its population is: Before its annexation by the Soviet Union during World War II, the ...

, as a result of which 21 people were killed and 9 were injured. Rockets hit the television tower and administrative buildings nearby. On 25 June, a rocket attack was carried out on civilian infrastructure in the city of Sarny. At least four people were killed and seven others were injured. On the morning of 22 October 2022, Russian troops launched a missile attack on energy infrastructure, as a result of the attack, electric substations were damaged. There were no casualties.

Sumy Oblast

Okhtyrka school bombing

On 27 February 2022, Amnesty International said that evidence showed Russian cluster munitions from a 220 mm

rocket hit a preschool in

Okhtyrka Okhtyrka (, ; ) is a city in Sumy Oblast, Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Okhtyrka Raion within the oblast. Okhtyrka was once home to Hussars and Cossacks. It was also in the past a regional seat of the Sloboda Ukraine Imperia ...

used as a civilian bomb shelter, killing three people including a child.

UAV An unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) or unmanned aircraft system (UAS), commonly known as a drone, is an aircraft with no human pilot, crew, or passengers onboard, but rather is controlled remotely or is autonomous.De Gruyter Handbook of Drone ...

film showed four hits on the roof of the preschool, three on the ground next to the school, two injured or dead civilians, and pools of blood. Amnesty International analysed 65 photos and videos of the event and interviewed local residents. ''Bellingcat'' stated that remains of the 9M27K rocket were found 200 metres east of the kindergarten. Russian forces were located west of Okhtyrka. Amnesty described the rocket type as "unguided and notoriously inaccurate", and described the attack as potentially a war crime that should be investigated.

Sumy airstrikes

In the evening and throughout the night on 7 March 2022, Russian forces executed an airstrike on Sumy's residential neighbourhood. About 22 people were killed, including three children. Under the procedural guidance of the Sumy District Prosecutor's Office, criminal proceedings have been instituted for violating the laws and customs of war. On 19 September 2024, a Russian guided aerial bomb struck a five-story

nursing home A nursing home is a facility for the residential care of older people, senior citizens, or disabled people. Nursing homes may also be referred to as care homes, skilled nursing facilities (SNF), or long-term care facilities. Often, these terms ...

for the elderly in Sumy, killing at least one and injuring 12, according to the Ukrainian Interior Ministry. The oblast had been hit regularly by Russian shelling and airstrikes since the beginning of the invasion in 2022, but Ukraine's offensive into the Kursk Oblast brought the front line closer and led to an increase in attacks by Russia. The energy infrastructure in particular had been badly damaged in Sumy, as part of a broader Russian campaign to degrade Ukraine's power plants and make it more difficult for utilities to provide basic services. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission said in a report that large-scale Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure ″have inflicted extensive harm and hardship on the country's civilian population, with potentially devastating consequences as winter approaches″.

Medical centre drone attacks

On 28 September 2024, Ukrainian officials reported that at least eight people had died following two consecutive Russian drone attacks on a medical centre in Sumy. Interior Minister Klymenko said that the first attack in the morning killed one person, and it was followed by another attack while patients and staff were evacuating. Regional prosecutors said there were 86 patients and 38 staff in the medical centre at the time of the attack. The method of hitting a target once and then striking the same target again as first responders arrive is known as a "

double tap A double tap is a shooting technique where two shots are fired in rapid succession at the same target with the same sight picture (as opposed to the controlled pair, whereby a second sighting is acquired for the second shot). Instruction and prac ...

." Russia has been accused of carrying out strikes of this type during its invasion of Ukraine.

18 November 2024 missile strike

On 18 November 2024, a Russian strike devastated a residential building in Sumy, with 11 deaths, including two children, and 89 wounded reported by Ukraine's Emergencies Ministry. Interior Minister

Ihor Klymenko Ihor Volodymyrovych Klymenko (, ; born 25 October 1972) is a Ukrainian police general serving as the minister of internal affairs since 7 February 2023 (acting since 18 January). He succeeded Denys Monastyrsky following his death in a helicop ...

also said the attack left Sumy's administrative center without power.

13 April 2025 ballistic missile strike

On 13 April 2025, Russian missiles struck Sumy residents gathering for Sunday church services, killing at least 32 people, including two children, and wounding at least 99 people, including 11 children according to the Interior Ministry of Ukraine. Ukrainian officials said that the attack was carried out using two ballistic missiles and cluster munitions were used in order to kill as many civilians as possible. According to Ukraine's Economy Minister

Yulia Svyrydenko Yulia Anatoliivna Svyrydenko (, ; born 25 December 1985) is a Ukrainian politician currently serving as First Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine and simultaneously Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Ukraine since November 4, 2021.

, the attack was carried out on one of the busiest church-going days of the year.

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

verified social media footage of the attack. The attack was the deadliest single attack on Ukrainian civilians since 2023, when 51 civilians were killed in strikes on Kupiansk. The attack was internationally condemned, with the Trump administration's special envoy to Ukraine and Russia,

Keith Kellogg Joseph Keith Kellogg Jr. (born May 12, 1944) is an American diplomat and retired Lieutenant general (United States), lieutenant general in the United States Army. He previously served as the national security advisor to Vice President Mike Penc ...

, commenting on the attack saying it ″crosses any line of decency″. The European Union's foreign policy chief,

Kaja Kallas Kaja Kallas (; born 18 June 1977) is an Estonian politician and diplomat. She was the first female prime minister of Estonia, a role she held from 2021 until 2024, when she resigned in advance of her appointment as High Representative of the ...

, also commented, calling the strike a ″horrific example of Russia intensifying attacks while Ukraine has accepted an unconditional ceasefire″, while French President

Emmanuel Macron Emmanuel Jean-Michel Frédéric Macron (; born 21 December 1977) is a French politician who has served as President of France and Co-Prince of Andorra since 2017. He was Ministry of Economy and Finance (France), Minister of Economics, Industr ...

said ″strong measures″ are needed for a ceasefire. Military expert Joakim Paasikivi referred to the strikes as an ″obvious war crime″, noting the usage of ballistic missiles on the city center of Sumy and the amount of killed and wounded.

Uman apartment block strike

On 28 April 2023, Russian forces launched 23

s and two

suicide drone A loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone, is a weapon with a warhead that is typically designed to loiter until a target is designated, then crash into it.

s at targets across Ukraine. Two missiles hit an apartment block in

Uman Uman (, , ) is a city in Cherkasy Oblast, central Ukraine. It is located to the east of Vinnytsia. Located in the east of the historical region of Podolia, the city rests on the banks of the Umanka River. Uman serves as the administrative c ...

, killing 23 people, including four children. Nine other residential buildings were damaged in the city. Shortly after, the Russian Defense Ministry posted a photo of a missile launch on its Telegram channel with the caption "Right on target". The message outraged Ukrainians, who saw it as gloating over the casualties. The Russian Defense Ministry said it had targeted Ukrainian army reserve units with the strikes. Power grid operator

Ukrenergo The Private JSC NEK Ukrenergo is a state-owned electricity transmission system operator in Ukraine and the sole operator of the high-voltage lines which transmit electricity in Ukraine. It is a member of the European Network of Transmission Syste ...

said the missile barrage did not damage the country's energy infrastructure.

Vinnytsia missile strike

At about 10:10 AM on 14 July 2022, an air raid alarm sounded in the city. At approximately 10:42 local residents reported three explosions in the city. Before that, local residents noticed a missile flying over

Bershad Bershad (, ; ) is a city in Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine, located in the historic region of Podolia. Until 2020 it was the administrative center of the former Bershad Raion. History The first extant mention of Bershad appears in 1459. It was a pri ...

city and Vinnytsia. According to Ukrainian authorities, the Russian Naval Forces fired five

cruise missiles from a submarine in the

. Ukraine claims that two of the missiles were shot down. One of the missiles reportedly hit the , a Soviet-era concert hall. But, according to Ukrainian officials, two missiles also struck civilian buildings, including a medical center, offices, stores and residential buildings in the center of the city. The attacks killed at least 28 people (including three children), and injured at least 202 others. Local officials pointed out that Kalibr missiles are high-precision which indicates that the Russians purposefully targeted civilians. The strike has been labeled as a war crime by officials from multiple countries. Ukrainian president

Volodymyr Zelenskyy Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelenskyy (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician and former entertainer who has served as the sixth and current president of Ukraine since 2019. He took office five years after the start of the Russo-Ukraini ...

wrote on his Telegram channel: "Vinnytsia. Missile strikes in the city centre. There are wounded and killed, among them a little child. Every day, Russia destroys the civilian population, kills Ukrainian children, directs rockets at civilian objects. Where there is nothing military. What is this if not an open terrorist attack? Inhuman. Country of killers. A country of terrorists". The strike has also been labeled as a war crime by Ukrainian Interior Minister

Denys Monastyrsky Denys Anatoliiovych Monastyrsky (, ; 12 June 1980 – 18 January 2023) was a Ukrainian lawyer and politician who served as Minister of Internal Affairs of Ukraine from 16 July 2021 until his death in a helicopter crash on 18 January 2023.

. The

Ministry of Defense of Russia The Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (; MOD) is the governing body of the Russian Armed Forces. The President of Russia is the Commander-in-Chief of the forces and directs the activity of the ministry. The Minister of Defence exerci ...

officially recognized the attack on

Vinnytsia Vinnytsia ( ; , ) is a city in west-central Ukraine, located on the banks of the Southern Bug. It serves as the administrative centre, administrative center of Vinnytsia Oblast. It is the largest city in the historic region of Podillia. It also s ...

the next day, saying that they hit the garrison house of officers, where allegedly "...a meeting of the command of the

with representatives of foreign arms suppliers was taking place..." According to them, most participants of the meeting were killed. Among the dead were allegedly three officers of the Air Force of Ukraine. The missile strike occurred during a conference in The Hague on holding Russia accountable for war crimes. The ambassador of Moldova to Ukraine, Valeriu Chiveri, condemned the attack on Vinnytsia, referring to attacks on civilian targets in Ukrainian cities away from the frontlines as crimes against humanity. He also mentioned the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

's decision to grant candidate status to both Moldova and Ukraine and talked about the need for both countries to work together.

Bombing of Zhytomyr

On 1 March 2022, late in the evening, Russian troops hit a residential sector of the city. About 10 residential buildings on Shukhevych street and around the city hospital were damaged. A few bombs were dropped on the city. As a result, at least two Ukrainian civilians were killed and three were injured. On 2 March, shells hit the regional perinatal center and some private houses. On 4 March, rockets hit the 25th Zhytomyr school destroying half of the school. On 8 March, in an air assault, a dormitory was hit. On 9 March, the outskirts of the city (Ozerne district) came under fire.

Bombing of Zaporizhzhia

One civilian was killed and two others injured when five Russian shells were fired at Zaporizhzhia at 7.15pm on 12 August 2022. Further city infrastructure in the Shevchenkivskyi District was also damaged in the shelling. During the night of 19 September, Zaporizhzhia was hit by eight Russian rockets in its industrial and residential areas. Followed by another rocket attack in the morning, striking the regional center near the Dnieper river. Two days later the city was again hit by two Russian rockets during the night, followed by another five rockets attacks in the daytime. The regional center was hit an additional two times while other infrastructure and residential houses were damaged, two of the projectiles landed in a field on the outskirts of the city. The attack wounded three civilians. The following day on 22 September, nine more rockets were fired at the city. One of the projectiles hit a hotel in the city's central park, killing one civilian and injuring five others. An electrical substation and several high-rise residential buildings were also damaged. Later that same day, ten more rockets struck the city and damaged about a dozen private homes. At 5.08am on 6 October, seven Russian rockets were fired towards the city center of Zaporizhzhia. Several residential buildings were destroyed and fires broke out due to the attack, killing 17 civilians and injuring 12 more. Zaporizhzhia was attacked once more during the night of 7 October, but this time by

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

ian

Shahed-136 The HESA Shahed 136 (, ), also known by its Russian designation Geran-2 (, ), is an Iranian-designed loitering munition, also referred to as a kamikaze drone or suicide drone, in the form of an autonomous pusher-propelled drone. It is design ...

kamikaze drones A loitering munition, also known as a suicide drone, kamikaze drone, or exploding drone, is a weapon with a warhead that is typically designed to loiter until a target is designated, then crash into it.

used by the Russian forces. The attack resulted in the deaths of 12 civilians with a further 13 injured and 15 missing. Around 3am on 9 October 12 Russian tactical missiles were launched against civilian infrastructure in Zaporizhzhia. Most missiles hit both high-rise buildings and residential houses, with a nine-story building being partially destroyed after the attack. A further five high-rise buildings, 20 residential houses and four schools were damaged alongside 20 cars. A total of 13 civilians were killed in the attack, while 89 more were injured. The following day at 1.45am, about seven Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles struck the city resulting in the deaths of eight civilians. On 23 November, Russian missile strikes destroyed a maternity ward in Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in the town of Vilnyansk, killing a newborn baby.

Civilian convoy attack

On 30 September 2022, a Russian

S-300 missile The S-300 (NATO reporting name SA-10 Grumble) is a series of long-range surface-to-air missile systems developed by the former Soviet Union. It was produced by NPO Almaz for the Soviet Air Defence Forces to defend against air raids and cruise ...

hit a civilian convoy of civilian cars near

Zaporizhzhia Zaporizhzhia, formerly known as Aleksandrovsk or Oleksandrivsk until 1921, is a city in southeast Ukraine, situated on the banks of the Dnieper, Dnieper River. It is the Capital city, administrative centre of Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Zaporizhzhia ...

killing 32 people, including a three-month-old child. and injuring around 88. People in cars had gathered in a logistic hub to register for entering Russian-occupied territories in the south, such as the cities of

Mariupol Mariupol is a city in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine. It is situated on the northern coast (Pryazovia) of the Sea of Azov, at the mouth of the Kalmius, Kalmius River. Prior to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it was the tenth-largest city in the coun ...

and

Melitopol Melitopol is a city and municipality in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southeastern Ukraine. It is situated on the Molochna River, which flows through the eastern edge of the city into the Molochnyi Lyman estuary. Melitopol is the second-largest city ...

, and they were planning either to return home or to meet relatives and take them back to government-controlled territory. According to a spokesperson for the local governor's office, the attack on civilians was deliberate as no military objective was placed near the site. It occurred hours before Russia formally annexed four oblasts of Ukraine, including

Zaporizhzhia Oblast Zaporizhzhia Oblast (), commonly referred to as Zaporizhzhia (), is an oblast (region) in south-east Ukraine. Its administrative centre is the city of Zaporizhzhia. The oblast covers an area of , and has a population of The oblast is an import ...

Apartment block strike

On 9 October 2022, 3 a.m. (UTC+3:00), six missiles were launched at a residential area in Zaporizhzhia, destroying an apartment building and damaging 70 other buildings. The attack resulted in the deaths of 13 people, including a child. Another 89 were injured, 11 of whom are children. The missiles reportedly originated from Russian-controlled locations in Zaporizhzhia. The airstrike took place the day after an explosion damaged large parts of the

Crimean Bridge The Crimean Bridge (, ; ), also called Kerch Strait Bridge or Kerch Bridge, is a pair of parallel bridges, one for a four-lane road and one for a double-track railway, spanning the Kerch Strait between the Taman Peninsula of Krasnodar Krai in ...

, which

Russian president The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

accused Ukraine of carrying out, and called it an "act of terrorism".

10 October 2022 missile strikes

On 10 October, at 1.45am, about seven Russian S-300 anti-aircraft missiles struck the city resulting in the deaths of eight civilians. Later on the day, an apartment block was destroyed and a kindergarten was damaged by shelling. 5 people were killed and 8 were injured in that shelling.

Orikhiv aid center bombing

On 9 July 2023, a Russian

guided bomb A guided bomb (also known as a smart bomb, guided bomb unit, or GBU) is a precision-guided munition designed to achieve a smaller circular error probable (CEP). The creation of precision-guided munitions resulted in the retroactive renaming of ...

struck a school being used to distribute

in the town of

Orikhiv Orikhiv (, ; , ) is a city in Polohy Raion, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, southern Ukraine. It had an estimated population of as of 1 January 2022. Early in the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, many residents were evacuated, with 6,000 remaining by Au ...

, Zaporizhzhia Oblast. Seven people were killed and eleven wounded. The General Prosecutor's office said the attack was being investigated as a war crime.

Strike on kiosk near children's playground

On 21 August 2024, a 14-year-old boy died following a Russian munition hitting a kiosk a few meters away from a children's playground in Malokaterynivka, southern Zaporizhzhia. The Ukrainian police stated that four children ranging in age from 11 to 17 had been injured in the attack.

11 November 2024 glide bomb attack

On 11 November 2024, an overnight glide bomb attack on Zaporizhzhia damaged a dormitory and partially destroyed a two-story apartment building. Ukraine's police said that one person was killed and 21 injured, including a four year old.

6 December 2024 strike on car repair shop

On 6 December 2024, a car shop in Zaporizhzhia was struck by Russia, regional officials said that 10 people were killed and 24 wounded, including two children.

10 December 2024 missile attack on private clinic and residential buildings

On 10 December 2024, local officials said a private

clinic A clinic (or outpatient clinic or ambulatory care clinic) is a health facility that is primarily focused on the care of outpatients. Clinics can be privately operated or publicly managed and funded. They typically cover the primary care needs ...

and residential buildings in Zaporizhzhia were hit by a ballistic missile, most likely an Iskander, killing at least eight people and injuring another 22, including a child.

8 January 2025 bombing of residential buildings

On 8 January 2025, Russian troops launched glide bombs at Zaporizhzhia in the afternoon, with at least two bombs striking residential buildings according to the regional governor Ivan Fedorov. The following day, the death toll was 13 people and the amount of injured around 113.

Placement of military objectives near civilian objects

Both the Russian and the Ukrainian army have been accused of violating

by locating military objectives within densely populated areas without removing civilians to safer areas. International humanitarian law requires all parties to the conflict to avoid, to the extent feasible, "locating military objectives within or near densely populated areas" and requires them to "remove civilian persons and objects under its control from the vicinity of military objectives". Contrary to the use of human shields, these fighting tactics do not involve utilizing the presence of civilians to render certain areas immune from military operations. On 29 June, the

Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a department of the United Nations Secretariat that works to promote and protect human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the Univers ...

expressed concern about Russian and Ukrainian armed forces taking up positions close to civilian objects without taking measures for protecting the civilians. The human rights agency had also received reports of the use of human shields. OHCHR documented the consequences of these fighting tactics in the case of a care house in Stara Krasnianka where the Ukrainian army had set up a firing position without first evacuating the residents, and in the case of a school in Yahidne, where 360 residents including 74 children were held captive by Russian forces for almost a month. Similar concerns were raised also by a report published on 20 July by the

Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe The Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is a regional security-oriented intergovernmental organization comprising member states in Europe, North America, and Asia. Its mandate includes issues such as arms control, the p ...

and by

on 21 July.

said on 4 August that it had found evidence that Ukrainian forces had repeatedly put civilians in danger by establishing bases and firing positions in populated residential areas, including schools and hospitals; some areas were kilometres away from front lines and, according to Amnesty International, alternative locations were available to the Ukrainian army. Between April and July, Amnesty International researchers found evidence that Ukrainian military objectives had been placed within residential areas in 19 towns and villages in the Kharkiv, Donetsk, Luhansk and Mykolaiv oblasts. Amnesty International's Secretary General

Agnès Callamard Agnès Paulette Solange Callamard (; born 14 March 1963) is a French human rights activist who is the Secretary General of Amnesty International. She was previously the Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary, or arbitrary executions appoint ...

stated that there was "a pattern of Ukrainian forces putting civilians at risk and violating the laws of war when they operate in populated area". The Amnesty report sparked significant outrage in Ukraine and the West and

Oksana Pokalchuk Oksana Pokalchuk is a Ukraine, Ukrainian lawyer and human rights activist who headed the Ukrainian section of Amnesty International from 2017 to 2022. Education Pokalchuk graduated with a Master's Arts degree in law at List of universities in Ukr ...

, head of Amnesty International in Ukraine, resigned from her post and left the organization in protest over the publication of the report. Amnesty's report was criticized by military and legal experts such as John Spencer, a specialist in urban warfare studies, who stated that advising Ukrainian forces not to be in urban areas did not make sense, as the circumstances of the war necessitated that. United Nations war crime investigator Marc Garlasco stated that the Amnesty report got the law wrong, and also that Ukraine was making efforts to protect civilians, including helping them to relocate. In mid-October 2022, the UN

Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine The Independent International Commission of Inquiry in Ukraine is a United Nations commission of inquiry established by the United Nations Human Rights Council on 4 March 2022 with a mandate to investigate violations of human rights and of intern ...

released a report which included findings that both Russian and Ukrainian forces had "deployed their military assets and troops in ways that can endanger civilians".

Analysis

By January 2025, it is estimated Russia dropped 51,000

s on Ukraine. This is almost three times the amount compared to 19,000 guided bombs dropped by the US and the UK during the

Iraq War The Iraq War (), also referred to as the Second Gulf War, was a prolonged conflict in Iraq lasting from 2003 to 2011. It began with 2003 invasion of Iraq, the invasion by a Multi-National Force – Iraq, United States-led coalition, which ...

. By February 2024, Russia had fired between 12,000,000 and 17,000,000

artillery shells A shell, in a modern military context, is a projectile whose payload contains an explosive, incendiary, or other chemical filling. Originally it was called a bombshell, but "shell" has come to be unambiguous in a military context. A shell c ...

against Ukraine. By comparison, the US Army fired 35,000 artillery shells in five months against

Islamic State The Islamic State (IS), also known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) and Daesh, is a transnational Salafi jihadism, Salafi jihadist organization and unrecognized quasi-state. IS ...

in the 2017 intervention in Syria, 60,000 artillery shells in the

Gulf War , combatant2 = , commander1 = , commander2 = , strength1 = Over 950,000 soldiers3,113 tanks1,800 aircraft2,200 artillery systems , page = https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-PEMD-96- ...

, and 34,000 artillery shells in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. No region in Ukraine was spared from Russian attacks. According to a Ukrainian estimate, only 3% of all Russian missiles, drones and bombs hit military targets, while 97% hit civilian targets. By June 2023,

UNDP The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is a United Nations agency tasked with helping countries eliminate poverty and achieve sustainable economic growth and human development. The UNDP emphasizes on developing local capacity towar ...

estimated 1.5 million homes in Ukraine were either damaged or destroyed in the Russo-Ukrainian War. By comparison, approximately 2 million homes were damaged or destroyed in Ukraine during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

. The

Kyiv School of Economics The Kyiv School of Economics (KSE) is an undergraduate and graduate school of economics and management in Kyiv, Ukraine, founded in 1996 by the Economics Education and Research Consortium (EERC) and the Eurasia Foundation. KSE has an agreement ...

estimated in January 2024 that the total area of damaged or destroyed

housing unit A housing unit, or dwelling unit (at later mention, often abbreviated to ''unit''), is a structure or the part of a structure or the space that is used as a home, residence, or sleeping place by one person or more people who maintain a common hous ...

s in Ukraine caused by the war was or 8.6% of the country's housing stock. This is 1.4 million households, leaving 3.4 million people homeless. Since 2022, half of all pregnancies in Ukraine resulted in

preterm birth Preterm birth, also known as premature birth, is the Childbirth, birth of a baby at fewer than 37 weeks Gestational age (obstetrics), gestational age, as opposed to full-term delivery at approximately 40 weeks. Extreme preterm is less than 28 ...

s due to war-related stress. By December 2024, the UN recorded 1,614 attacks on Ukrainian schools by Russian forces. In 2024,

UNICEF UNICEF ( ), originally the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund, officially United Nations Children's Fund since 1953, is an agency of the United Nations responsible for providing Humanitarianism, humanitarian and Development a ...

reported that 16 Ukrainian children were killed or injured every week in the war. UNICEF also estimates that 1.5 million Ukrainian children suffered from

PTSD Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental disorder that develops from experiencing a traumatic event, such as sexual assault, domestic violence, child abuse, warfare and its associated traumas, natural disaster, traffic collision, ...

or other mental health problems related to the conflict. On average, Ukrainian children were hiding in underground bomb shelters for 920 hours (more than a month) in 2022. According to a study, trauma exposure in the first year of war encompassed 57.0 % of children aged 7–17, and 45.0 % of children aged 3–6.

References

External links

Guide to investigating war crimes
at

Global Investigative Journalism Network The Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) is "an international association of nonprofit organizations that support, promote and produce investigative journalism." The association is headquartered in the United States, and its membership ...

by investigative journalist Manisha Ganguly * Contact websites for those providing evidence *
Contact pathway of the Office of the Prosecutor
of the

*
Ukrainian government website
for collecting evidence on war crimes committed by Russian forces
Map of likely war crimes in Ukraine
by

* Videos *
Video of drone flyover of apartment buildings being bombed in Mariupol. News.com.au, The News Room, March 15 2022
*
Video of tanks firing repeatedly on apartment buildings in Mariupol, civilians in hospital, woman crying for dead children. AP News, 12 March 2022.
*
Video of aftermath, including injured pregnant woman being carried, after Russian airstrike on hospital in Mariupol, Ukraine. Sky News, March 9, 2022
*
CBS News video about pattern of rape by Russian soldiers against Ukrainian women during the invasion.
{{International criminal law, state=collapsed Articles containing video clips * * Anti-Ukrainian sentiment * Civilians killed in the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Bombing of Chernihiv

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast

Dnipro missile strikes

Dnipro apartment block strike

Kryvyi Rih missile strikes

Chaplyne railway station strike

Dnipro drone strikes

Donetsk Oblast

Vuhledar cluster bomb attack

Lyman cluster bomb attack

Siege of Mariupol

Targeting of humanitarian corridors

Mariupol hospital airstrike

Mariupol theatre airstrike

Kramatorsk railway station attack

Kramatorsk restaurant strike

Chasiv Yar missile strike

Donetsk City

Sloviansk missile strike

Kostiantynivka shopping centre missile attack

Dobropillia strikes

Bombardment of Izium

Kharkiv Oblast

Bombardment of Kharkiv

Hroza missile attack

Kherson shelling

Deliberate drone attacks on Kherson civilians

Gammalsvenskby white phosphorus attacks

Poltava Oblast

Kremenchuk shopping mall attack

February 2025 residential building attack

Kyiv Oblast

Irpin refugee column shelling

Kyiv missile strikes

Bombing of Borodianka

Bucha massacre

March 2025 drone attack

April 2025 joint missile and drone barrage

May 2025 air attack

June 2025 strikes

Luhansk Oblast

Bilohorivka school bombing

Stara Krasnianka care home attack

Lviv attacks

Bombing of Mykolaiv

Odesa Oblast

Bombing of Odesa

Serhiivka missile strike

18 November 2024 missile strike

10 June 2025 maternity ward and residential buildings drone strikes

Rivne missile strikes

Sumy Oblast

Okhtyrka school bombing

Sumy airstrikes

Medical centre drone attacks

18 November 2024 missile strike

13 April 2025 ballistic missile strike

Uman apartment block strike

Vinnytsia missile strike

Bombing of Zhytomyr

Bombing of Zaporizhzhia

Civilian convoy attack

Apartment block strike

10 October 2022 missile strikes

Orikhiv aid center bombing

Strike on kiosk near children's playground

11 November 2024 glide bomb attack

6 December 2024 strike on car repair shop

10 December 2024 missile attack on private clinic and residential buildings

8 January 2025 bombing of residential buildings

Placement of military objectives near civilian objects

Analysis

See also

References

External links