More civilians were killed in July in Ukraine as a result of Russian attacks than in nearly any other month since Moscow invaded its neighbour in February 2022, the United Nations said in a report released on Thursday.
At least 437 people were killed in Ukraine and 2,610 more civilians were injured, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission said, adding that this was a 30% increase on June and a 70% rise compared with July last year.
"The number of civilians killed was the highest since May 2022," the report said. "The number of child casualties (17 killed; 166 injured) was the highest since April 2022," it added.
It said the actual number of victims was likely higher. Verification of death reports was ongoing. The number of victims had risen from month to month this year. The capital Kiev was hit particularly hard in July, with 54 people killed and more than 200 injured.
This was due to an escalation in violence through massive Russian attacks with ballistic and cruise missiles, the report said. Drone strikes and glide bombs also remained a major danger for people.
Ukraine has been warning for months that it cannot protect itself sufficiently from the intensified Russian ballistic missile attacks because it lacks missiles for the Patriot air defence system.
The number of civilians killed in July also increased on the Russian side, the UN observers said. Russian authorities reported 79 dead and more than 600 injured, it said. The figures were difficult to verify because access to information in Russia is restricted, the UN added.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, the UN has recorded at least 16,874 civilian deaths, including 820 children. The total number of injured was 51,273, including more than 3,000 children, the agency said.