UN rights office alarmed by rising civilian toll from long-range attacks in Ukraine, Russia

The UN human rights office on Tuesday voiced alarm over the growing impact of long-range attacks on civilians in both Ukraine and Russia, urging an end to strikes affecting residential areas and civilian infrastructure.

“The scale and intensity of long-range attacks impacting residential buildings and critical civilian infrastructure are shocking. These attacks must stop,” UN Human Rights Office spokesperson Thameen Al-Kheetan told reporters in Geneva.

He said recent days had seen multiple attacks causing civilian casualties in Ukraine and the Russian Federation, stressing that civilians and civilian infrastructure are protected under international humanitarian law.

“Any such deliberate attack is a war crime,” he said.

Al-Kheetan said Kyiv, Urkaine was struck Sunday in what authorities described as the largest missile attack on the capital since the start of the war, leaving one civilian dead and 20 others injured.

He also cited reported attacks in Zaporizhzhia and near Kharkiv that killed seven civilians, including a child, and injured dozens more.

A cruise missile strike on a merchant vessel shortly after it departed a port near Odesa reportedly killed 10 people and injured seven others, he added.

The spokesperson also cited reports from Russian authorities that Ukrainian drone attacks on logistics centers in the Moscow and Tambov regions overnight on July 17-18 killed eight civilians and injured 86 others.