Ukraine: NGOs deeply concerned by the intensification of bombardments on civilian infrastructure

Thirty-one months into the Russian-Ukrainian war, civilian cost continues to rise.

The latest ground offensives in the Donetsk oblast by the Russian Armed Forces, and in the Kursk oblast by the Ukrainian Armed Forces, have been coupled with an intensification of air attacks. Since July 2024, when at least 950 incidents involving explosive weapons were already recorded in Ukraine at the start of 2024, the trend of intensified shelling in populated areas has been confirmed. In July alone, 339 incidents were recorded in Ukraine according to the Explosive Weapons Monitor, which made this month the deadliest since October 2022, with at least 1,237 civilian casualties – 219 killed and 1,018 injured. Similarly, critical civilian infrastructure such as energy facilities located in cities outskirts were also heavily destroyed over the past nine months, becoming a ‘daily destructive pattern’ according to the UN.

Following a first statement released in early July, we, once again, choose to highlight 20 significant incidents[1] that occurred from July to September 2024, indicating that the massive use of explosive weapons in towns and villages continues to excessively claim civilian lives.

July 2024

• On July 3, the city of Dnipro was struck with missiles and loitering munitions, causing the death of 5 civilians and injuring 49 others.
• On July 5, the city of Selydove in Donetsk oblast was attacked resulting in the death of 5 civilians and injuring 15 others.
• On July 8, multiple populated locations in Dnipro City, Kyiv City and Kryvyi Rih were attacked, killing at least 42 civilians and wounding at least 190. The Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv City was struck, shattering its toxicology department and damaging the nearby Center for Pediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery.
• On July 13, a railway infrastructure in Budy, Kharkiv oblast, was hit killing 2 civilians and injuring 25.
• On July 19, a playground and high-rise buildings in the city of Mykolaiv were damaged by a missile, claiming 4 civilian lives, including a child, and injuring 14 others.

August 2024

• Since August 6, and the start of the Ukrainian army ground incursion into the oblast of Kursk, at least 12 people were killed and 121 other injured, according to Russian authorities.[2]
• On August 9, the ‘Ekomarket’ supermarket in Kostyantynivka was hit, killing 14 civilians and injuring 44 others.
• On August 24, the Sapphire hotel in Kramatorsk was hit, killing one British journalist and injuring 6 other civilians.
• On August 26, multiple populated areas were attacked with 236 missiles and drones, marking the largest air attack on Ukraine since February 2022. At least 8 people were killed and over 23 wounded.
• On August 30, the city of Kharkiv was struck with five guided-aerial bombs resulting in the death of 8 civilians and over 100 civilians injured.

September 2024

• On September 1, a shopping mall and the Palace of Sport were hit with missiles in Kharkiv, resulting in at least 47 people injured, including 5 children.
• On September 2, a hotel in Zaporizhzhia was shelled, resulting in the death of 2 people and injuring 4 others. At the same moment, a kindergarten, seven private houses and an enterprise were hit by missiles in Dnipro, injuring 6 people.
• On September 3, a hospital in Poltava was struck by two ballistic missiles, killing at least 50 people and wounding 270 others.
• On September 4, the city of Lviv was massively attacked with missiles and drones, damaging residential buildings, killing at least 7 people – including 2 children – and injuring 64.
• On September 10, a high-rise residential building was damaged in the town of Ramenskoye located in the Moscow region, following a large drones attack that killed at least one woman.[3]
• On September 12, a humanitarian convoy from the ICRC was hit in the Donetsk region, killing 3 aid workers and injuring 2 others.
• On September 15, a high-rise residential building was hit in the city of Kharkiv with several aerial-guided bombs that caused the death of one person and injured at least 40 others, including children.
• On September 21, the city center of Kryvyi Rih was hit by missiles, killing a 12-year-old boy and 2 elderly women, and wounding 3 others.
• On September 28, a hospital in Sumy was hit by two consecutive attacks 45 minutes apart, killing at least 10 people during the evacuation of the hospital’s patients.
• On September 29, residential and commercial buildings and railways were hit and damaged with 13 guided bombs in the city of Zaporizhzhia, wounding at least 16 civilians, including 2 children.

Beyond the appalling civilian death toll, these massive attacks in towns and villages also have major reverberating humanitarian consequences, triggering compounded multisectoral needs among the population – in shelter, health, rehabilitation, protection, mental health support or cash assistance – and causing lasting risks of injuries to the population, due to the tremendous number of explosive remnants of war littering the Ukrainian territory.

We, once again, collectively condemn these attacks which cause harm to civilians and relentlessly flout international humanitarian law (IHL) and international human rights law (IHRL). This includes violation of the principles of distinction, proportionality, and feasible precautions, the use of indiscriminate attacks, the use of internationally prohibited weapons, such as landmines and cluster munitions, the attacks on civilians and civilian objects, including health facilities and other critical civilian infrastructure, and attacks against medical and humanitarian workers. Humanitarian access in Ukraine is also increasingly denied due to the use of explosive weapons, in disregard of the commitment 4.4 of the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas, which compels to facilitate ‘rapid, safe and unhindered humanitarian access’.

We, once again, call upon governments to urgently endorse and implement this Political Declaration and all its commitments.

Signatories:

• Children New Generation
• Humanity & Inclusion
• Helvetas
• International charitable Foundation “Friends’ Hands”
• Паросток (Parostok)
• Médecins du Monde France (MDM-F)
• Mines Advisory Group (MAG)
• The Tenth of April (TTA)
• Triangle Génération Humanitaire (TGH)
• Turbota pro Litnih v Ukraini (TLU)
• War Child Alliance
• Women’s Center Support, Protection, and Care