During the first month and a half of the war in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions, at least 441 civilians were killed. The UN described the killings of 100 people in detail.

Photo: Empty graves after the exhumation of the bodies of those killed during the occupation of the Kharkiv region. Izyum, September 25, 2022
Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP / Scanpix / LETA

The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has released a report on the massacres of civilians in the Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian army during the first stage of the invasion of Ukraine.

UN representatives have documented the killings of civilians in 102 towns and villages in the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions, committed between February 24 and April 6, 2022. The report's authors did not study murders of civilians committed in other territories liberated by Ukraine.

The information in the report is based on the accounts of victims and witnesses and is further corroborated by other sources, including audio and photographic evidence, forensic medical reports, criminal case files, and court documents.

UN representatives found that from February 24 to April 6, Russian military personnel, who then occupied the territories of the Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Sumy regions, killed 441 civilians: 341 men, 72 women, 20 boys, and 8 girls. However, available information suggests that there were likely "significantly more" murders, the report says.

Murders were committed throughout the occupied territory, but in some localities, there were more of them than in others. The most obvious example is Bucha, where UN officials have already documented the killing of 73 civilians and are continuing to confirm the alleged massacres of another 105 civilians.