In a scheduled update on the war to the Human Rights Council in Geneva, Ms. Al-Nashif noted that the main cause of death and injuries were “short-range drone attacks” both in areas controlled by the Ukrainian government and in territories occupied by Russia.
UN data shows that In 2025, at least 580 civilians were killed and 3,000 injured in such attacks.. But in the first two months of this year alone, 107 civilians were killed and 430 wounded, almost double the casualty rate.
95 percent of the casualties were caused by short-range drones targeting government-controlled territory, the Deputy High Commissioner added.
Frontline victims
Danger is also ever-present in Russian-occupied frontline areas, including the Oleshky district in the Kherson region, where residents describe “frequent drone attacks,” ambassadors heard.
“Coupled with landmines along the roads…evacuation is extremely difficult and dangerous, leaving many people trapped near the front line.” said Ms. Al-Nashif, describing food shortages and other critical humanitarian needs.
Regarding repeated attacks by Russian forces on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, the Deputy High Commissioner noted that they have intensified this winter, “including Shocks in systems that heat residential buildings.causing serious hardship to civilians.”
Today, Ukraine has lost more than half of its capacity to generate electricity, causing nationwide power outages “up to 22 hours a day in some areas,” Al-Nashif explained.
“Hundreds of thousands of civilians were left without heat, some for weeks and even months, in temperatures that often fell below minus 15°C,” he continued, before citing unconfirmed reports of attacks on energy facilities also in Russian-controlled areas.
Echoing those concerns, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, warned that Young people have endured “the harshest winter” of the war so far, caused by attacks on energy and water infrastructure that have disrupted electricity, heating and water and sanitation amid freezing temperatures.
“It is estimated that children lost between 79 and 88 percent of effective learning time between mid-January and mid-February,” said Anne Grandjean, the agency’s program specialist.
The plight of captured soldiers
The Deputy High Commissioner also highlighted long-standing concerns about Russia’s “widespread” and ongoing mistreatment of captured soldiers.
“More than 96 percent of the Ukrainian prisoners of war we interviewed said they were subjected to torture and ill-treatment. during their captivity” since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ms. Al-Nashif explained.
In calling on Russia to “stop this war,” the top UN human rights official also urged Moscow to “stop extrajudicial executions, torture, ill-treatment and other violations against prisoners of war and detained civilians… In short, to fully comply with its obligations under international law.”
The Deputy High Commissioner also called on Ukraine to “safeguard prisoners of war from torture and ill-treatment” and end discrimination against people who often have no choice but to leave Russian-occupied territory.
Right to respond
Responding to those comments, Ukraine’s Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva, Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, underlined the widespread impact of the war in uprooting thousands of civilians in Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea: “a deliberate strategy by Russia to terrorize civilians, repress dissent and punish those who refuse to leave their homes or comply with Russia’s illegal policies.”
Dismissing the UN Deputy High Commissioner’s update on the war, the Russian delegation urged her to “stop defending the kyiv regime” by alleging a “war against dissidents, bloggers, journalists and Zelensky’s enemies.”
Many of the 47 member states of the UN Human Rights Council also spoke at the oral update on the Ukraine war, which has been a regular feature of its work since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.
“We are dismayed by Russia’s increasing attacks on civilian life, instilling fear and trauma,” Germany’s delegation said. “Widespread and systematic missile and drone attacks have killed and injured increasing numbers of civilians in recent months.”
Taking the floor, the Chinese delegation highlighted its country’s commitment “to promote peace talks and promote a political solution to the Ukraine crisis.”