2025 the bloodiest year for civilians

The year 2025 became the deadliest for civilians in the war in Ukraine since 2022, according to a report by investigators from the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT).
According to the volunteer team’s data, at least 2,919 civilians were killed on both sides of the front line (including 96 children), while another 17,775 people were wounded (including 1,000 children).
The total number of casualties amounted to 20,694. Compared to 2024, the number of those killed increased by 12%, while the number of those wounded rose by more than 25%.
A total of 79% of all those killed and wounded were recorded in areas under Ukraine’s control. In 2025, CIT documented 2,348 killed and 13,952 wounded there.
In areas of Ukraine under Russia’s control, the team recorded 298 killed and 1,751 wounded, while in Russia itself 273 people were killed and 2,072 were wounded.
At the same time, the overall number of casualties in Russia and in Ukrainian territories occupied by the Russian army in 2025 fell by 6% compared to 2024, whereas in territories controlled by Kyiv it increased by 35%.
Among the deadliest attacks of 2025, CIT highlights Russian missile strikes on Ukrainian cities — Ternopil, Sumy, Kryvyi Rih, Kyiv and Dnipro.
In particular, on 4 April a strike hit a children’s playground in Kryvyi Rih: 20 people were killed, including nine children, and another 74 civilians, including 11 children, were wounded. The team notes that Russia’s Ministry of Defence then reported a strike on a “venue where a meeting with unit commanders and Western instructors was taking place in one of the city’s restaurants.” However, according to CIT, CCTV footage from a nearby restaurant showed that no meeting was taking place there at the moment of the strike.
On 13 April, Sumy was attacked with ballistic missiles. Thirty-five people were killed, including two minors, and another 129 civilians were wounded, including 17 children. Russia’s Ministry of Defence claimed the strike targeted an awards ceremony for service members in one of the buildings of a local university. CIT notes that the ceremony did take place, but none of the military personnel present were harmed — they were in shelter. The report also says that in both cases missiles were used with warheads containing pre-formed fragments, whose detonation is effective against unprotected targets.
CIT describes the deadliest incident as a massive aerial attack on Ternopil on the morning of 19 November. After two Kh-101 cruise missiles hit two apartment buildings, a large fire broke out in one, while floor slabs collapsed in the other. Thirty-eight people, including eight children, died in the fire and under the rubble. Three civilians are still listed as missing, and another 92 people were injured, including 18 children.
Among the attacks with the largest overall number of casualties, the team also includes a cruise-missile strike on Dnipro on 24 June: 21 people were killed and 319 were wounded, with one missile landing near a passenger train.
By region, on territories controlled by Kyiv, CIT records the highest number of fatalities in Donetsk Oblast (756), where the fiercest fighting is taking place, while Kherson Oblast leads in the number of wounded (2,903), where there have been no significant frontline changes since 2022.
CIT draws attention to the fact that, despite a large-scale rotation of Russian units in 2025, the number of casualties in Kherson Oblast continues to rise. This suggests that the “campaign of terror” against civilians is not an “excess of individual perpetrators,” but is approved at least at the command level of the Dnipro grouping of forces, the report says.
In occupied territories, the highest number of casualties is recorded in Donetsk and Kherson oblasts.
In Russia, CIT’s tally indicates that the most severe situation remains in Belgorod Oblast. In 2025, 134 people were killed there and another 1,202 were wounded. Kursk Oblast follows (61 killed and 327 wounded), as does Bryansk Oblast (24 killed and 181 wounded). “As in Kherson Oblast, there is virtually no active fighting in these three regions. Despite this, civilians here also become victims of attacks, predominantly involving short-range drones — FPV kamikaze drones and munitions dropped from Mavic-type UAVs,” the report’s authors write.
CIT separately emphasises that deliberate attacks on civilians, regardless of the side, constitute a grave war crime and must stop, and those responsible must be held accountable.
A separate conclusion concerns the role of drones. In 2025, according to CIT, drone strikes led to 1,376 deaths and 10,089 injuries — more than from all other weapon types combined. Compared to 2024, the number of those injured by UAVs rose by more than threefold, while the number of those killed increased by a factor of 2.85.
The report’s authors note that both Ukraine and Russia increased drone production in 2025.
“This also affected the number of regions impacted by attacks. If in 2024, in addition to three border regions [of Russia], casualties were recorded in a further 12 federal subjects, then in 2025 their number increased to 24. The total number of those killed in these regions was 47, and the number of those wounded was 346,” the report says.
CIT concludes that the spread of high-precision strike capabilities does not reduce humanitarian harm. If the 2025 trends — increased UAV use and the continuation of the aerial campaign — persist, then in 2026 the number of civilian casualties is highly likely to continue rising regardless of the situation on the ground, the investigators believe.
According to the UN, by the end of 2025 almost 15,000 Ukrainian civilians had been killed since the start of the full-scale war, and more than 40,000 had been wounded.
According to Russian official sources, from February 2022 to early 2026, around eight thousand civilians were killed in Russia by strikes carried out by Ukraine’s Armed Forces, and more than 18,000 were wounded.
The real number of casualties is likely significantly higher due to limited access to occupied territories and unverified cases.