Civilian casualties in Ukraine caused by bombing rose by 26% in 2025, as Russia intensified attacks on cities and key infrastructure, according to a global conflict monitoring group.
Action on Armed Violence (AOAV) said 2,248 civilians were reported killed and 12,493 injured by explosive weapons in Ukraine last year, based on English-language media reports. The data also showed a sharp rise in the number of casualties per incident.
On average, 4.8 civilians were killed or injured in each strike, a 33% increase on 2024. The deadliest attack occurred in Dnipro on 24 June, when Russian missiles hit a passenger train, residential buildings and schools. Twenty-one people were killed and 314 injured, including 38 children.
Iain Overton, AOAV’s executive director, said the figures reflected a broader collapse in restraint across modern conflicts. He warned that respect for proportionality in warfare “has broken”.
International law prohibits deliberate or disproportionate attacks on civilians or civilian infrastructure, classifying them as war crimes. However, experts say this principle is increasingly ignored in conflicts including Gaza, Sudan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, as well as Ukraine.
“We have watched this erosion unfold over years, from Homs to Aleppo to Mariupol and now Gaza,” Overton said. “What feels different is the sense that there is no longer a functioning international rules-based order capable of holding those responsible to account.”
Missile and drone attacks struck Ukraine almost nightly throughout 2025 and into early 2026, leaving millions without reliable electricity, heating or water. On the night of 9 September, Ukraine faced the largest air assault of the war, with 805 drones and 13 missiles launched in a single attack.
AOAV stressed that its figures underestimate the true toll, as they rely on English-language reporting, which cannot capture all incidents or casualties.
Globally, civilian casualties from explosive violence fell by 26% in 2025 from a 10-year high recorded the previous year. The decline was largely attributed to an October ceasefire in Gaza, which had been the deadliest conflict for civilians.
AOAV recorded 14,024 civilian casualties in Gaza in 2025, 40% fewer than in 2024. However, Israeli officials have acknowledged that figures compiled by local authorities are broadly accurate. A senior security official said around 70,000 Palestinians had been killed since October 2023, close to the Gaza health ministry’s figure of more than 72,000 deaths.
During 2025 alone, the health ministry recorded 25,718 deaths and 62,854 injuries, highlighting the scale of underreporting in international media-based counts.
Worldwide, AOAV recorded 45,358 civilian casualties in 2025, down from 61,353 the year before. These included 17,589 civilians killed and 27,769 injured by explosive weapons.
Israel was identified as the country responsible for the highest number of civilian casualties, narrowly ahead of Russia. Israel’s involvement in multiple conflicts meant it accounted for 35% of all recorded casualties, compared with 32% attributed to Russia. Conflicts in Sudan and Myanmar followed, with 5,438 and 3,178 casualties respectively.
“Across Ukraine, Myanmar, Gaza and Sudan, the message is the same,” Overton said. “When impunity becomes normalised, war crimes stop being shocking exceptions and start to look like a method of warfare.”
