Where Data Tells the Story
© Voronoi 2026. All rights reserved.
The UN Office for the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has tracked civilian deaths in the Russia-Ukraine conflict since its beginning in April 2014.
The dataset released in May 2026, covering confirmed deaths through April 2026, records approximately 19,225 civilian fatalities across 12 years.
This is Part 1 of a five-part Data Explained series on Russia’s war on Ukraine.
It begins here, with the people for whom every other number in the series is a consequence.
Approximately 8,428 civilian deaths in 2022. The full-scale invasion began on February 24 of that year.
What followed?
These produced a civilian death rate that the conflict had never previously approached. The figure is so large that it restructures how every surrounding year is read.
Compared to 8,428, the years that follow look like relief: 1,974 in 2023. 2,088 in 2024. 2,527 in 2025.
Each of those figures, measured against 2022, reads as an improvement.
Measured against the pre-invasion baseline (25 deaths in 2021, 26 in 2020, 27 in 2019), they represent a sustained catastrophe in its fourth year.