The UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has tracked civilian deaths in the Russia-Ukraine conflict since its beginning in April 2014. 

The dataset released in May 2026, covering confirmed deaths through April 2026, records approximately 19,225 civilian fatalities across 12 years.

This is Part 1 of a five-part Data Explained series on Russia’s war on Ukraine. 

It begins here, with the people for whom every other number in the series is a consequence.

TL;DR

• The UN has confirmed approximately 19,225 civilian deaths in the Russia-Ukraine conflict between April 2014 and April 2026.
• The figure represents a verified minimum, not a total count, as deaths in occupied or inaccessible areas remain unverified.
• 2025 recorded 2,527 civilian deaths, the highest annual toll since 2022.
• The 2026 partial figure of 804 deaths projects to approximately 2,412 annualized.

Note: The OHCHR figure is specifically the civilian toll (people neither in uniform nor carrying weapons) killed in places where civilians live.

ICYMI: The Recap

We started a five-part series of data investigation to capture the effect of the Russia-Ukraine war in numbers.

• Ukraine War in Data Part 1 confirmed approximately 19,225 civilian deaths in Ukraine. 
• Ukraine War in Data Part 2 documented 5.35 million registered Ukrainian refugees and the countries hosting most of them across Europe and Asia. 
• Ukraine War in Data Part 3 mapped a military spending gap between Russia and Ukraine that closed from 20-to-1 to 2-to-1 before widening again. 
• Ukraine War in Data Part 4 tracked €415 billion in international aid commitments from 23 donors into Ukraine.
• Ukraine War in Data Part 5, the final installment, documents what four years of the war physically did to Ukraine at its center.

What Happened in 2022, Really? 

Approximately 8,428 civilian deaths in 2022. The full-scale invasion began on February 24 of that year. 

What followed?

1. The siege of Mariupol
2. Advance on Kyiv
3. Occupation of Kherson
4. The urban combat through Bucha, Irpin, and Izium

These produced a civilian death rate that the conflict had never previously approached. The figure is so large that it restructures how every surrounding year is read.

Compared to 8,428, the years that follow look like relief: 1,974 in 2023. 2,088 in 2024. 2,527 in 2025. 

Each of those figures, measured against 2022, reads as an improvement. 

Measured against the pre-invasion baseline (25 deaths in 2021, 26 in 2020, 27 in 2019), they represent a sustained catastrophe in its fourth year.

What the Quiet Years Tell Us

Between 2019 and 2021, civilian deaths fell to between 25 and 27 annually.

The Minsk II ceasefire agreement, signed in February 2015, had produced a real and measurable reduction in civilian mortality. 

From 2,084 deaths in 2014’s partial opening year (the conflict began in April), annual fatalities fell to 955 in 2015, then to 112 in 2016, and continued declining until the frozen conflict reached something close to dormancy.

Imperfect, contested, and ultimately temporary agreements still produced six years in which fewer than 30 civilians per year were being killed in a conflict that had opened by killing more than 2,000. 

2026 Is Not Slowing Down

Eight hundred and four confirmed civilian deaths through approximately April 2026. 

It’s a partial-year figure. 

When spread across four months, it projects to approximately 2,412 annualized. 

If that pace holds, 2026 will approach or potentially exceed 2025’s 2,527 confirmed deaths, which would be the worst post-invasion year on record. 

The 2026 trajectory is consistent with the documented escalation in Russian long-range missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities and energy infrastructure through 2024 and 2025. 

There’s a Caveat… 

OHCHR methodology counts only deaths it can individually verify through documentation, witness accounts, and physical evidence. 

Deaths in areas under Russian occupation, in active frontline zones where investigation is impossible, and in locations where record-keeping has collapsed are not included. 

The figure of approximately 19,225 is a floor. 

The UN has consistently stated that its figures represent verified minimums.

The conflict has also killed soldiers (Ukrainian and Russian) in numbers estimated by various credible sources in the tens of thousands to potentially hundreds of thousands. 

The OHCHR figure is specifically the civilian toll: people not in uniform, not carrying weapons, killed in places where civilians live.

What’s Next? 

The four remaining installments of this series will document: 

1. Where survivors fled
2. The military spending that sustained the killing
3. The international financial response that kept Ukraine in the fight
4. The physical damage that was done to the country where all 19,225 of these deaths occurred. 

ELI5 (Explain It Like I’m 5)

Since Russia first attacked parts of Ukraine in 2014, at least 19,225 civilians (people who weren’t soldiers) have been killed, according to the United Nations. The deadliest year was 2022 when Russia launched its big invasion. But here’s the part most people don’t know: 2025 was the next worst year, meaning the war is killing more civilians each year, not fewer. This is Part 1 of a five-part series looking at the war’s full cost in data.

Source: 

OHCHR, United Nations (April 2014 to April 2026).

OHCHR counts only individually verified deaths. All figures represent confirmed minimum counts.