UN Reports 15,850 Killed in Ukraine War, Actual Toll Higher

The United Nations reported Tuesday that 15,850 people, including 791 children, have been killed in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

The actual number of casualties is likely significantly higher, Kayoko Gotoh, Europe and Central Asia director of the UN’s Department of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, told the UN Security Council.

Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia remain stalled. U.S. President Donald Trump attempted to mediate and announced a three-day ceasefire earlier this month, but fighting quickly resumed.

Russian attacks on Tuesday killed at least six people across Ukraine, Ukrainian authorities said.

A 15-year-old boy was among three people killed in a ballistic missile strike on the city of Pryluky in the Chernihiv region on Tuesday morning, according to the State Emergency Service of Ukraine.

In the Sumy region, two people died in a drone attack on the city of Hlukhiv, the Sumy Regional Prosecutor’s Office said on Facebook.

In a separate evening attack in the same region, a drone struck a civilian car in the city of Buryn, killing one person and injuring another, said Oleg Grigorov, head of the regional military administration.

On the Russian side, two people were killed and six injured over the past 24 hours in a Ukrainian drone attack on the village of Borisovka in the Belgorod region, Acting Governor Alexander Shuvaev said.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said it intercepted and destroyed 70 Ukrainian drones over six hours between 05:00 GMT and 11:00 GMT on Tuesday across multiple Russian regions, including the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

Multiple drones heading toward Moscow were shot down, Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said. However, an industrial facility in the Yaroslavl region was struck by a drone, according to Governor Mikhail Yevrayev.

On Tuesday evening, two men were injured in an attack on a gas station in the village of Smotrova Buda in the Bryansk region, Acting Governor Yegor Kovalchuk said, without specifying whether a drone or missile was used.