At least 70 civilians have been killed in Ukraine over past five days in May, - UN
A series of massive missile and drone strikes on Ukraine in early May led to a sharp rise in civilian casualties.
According to Censor.NET, this was reported by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (UNHRMMU).
"On May 5 alone, a wave of attacks by the Russian Federation left 28 people dead and 194 wounded, bringing the total number of civilian casualties across Ukraine since May 1 to at least 70 dead and more than 500 wounded," the statement said.
The UNHRMMU has confirmed most of the civilian casualties and continues to gather information.
"Of particular concern are both the scale of civilian casualties and the extent of the damage inflicted in just a few days. Since May 1, more than 570 civilians have reportedly been killed or injured in 14 regions of Ukraine," noted UNHRMMU President Daniel Belle.
Massive Russian strikes on Ukraine
Between May 1 and May 5, Russian forces carried out a series of massive shelling attacks on various regions of Ukraine, resulting in significant civilian casualties.
On May 5, Russian airstrikes hit an industrial area of Zaporizhzhia. According to preliminary data, at least 12 people were killed and another 46 were injured.
On the same day, central areas of Kramatorsk in Donetsk Oblast came under attack. As a result of the attack, at least six people were reportedly killed, and another 13 were wounded.
A series of strikes involving long-range missiles and drones, which began on May 1, has affected a number of regions in Ukraine, particularly the western regions. Casualties and damage have been reported in Ternopil and Rivne, as well as in the Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Poltava, and Odesa regions.
Many of the attacks were carried out during the day in urban areas using heavy weaponry, which likely led to a high number of civilian casualties.
Rescue workers and medical personnel were hit by follow-up strikes
Some of the dead and wounded were emergency responders who were dealing with the aftermath of previous attacks.
In the Poltava region, two rescue workers were killed after a second strike on a gas production facility that had been attacked on the night of May 4.
In Kherson on May 3, medical personnel came under attack from a short-range drone while providing assistance to victims of a previous strike.
"Many of the civilians killed and wounded were going about their normal daily activities – going to work, working, shopping, walking, or helping to deal with the aftermath of previous strikes," Ms. Bell noted.
According to her, under such circumstances, harm to the civilian population was foreseeable.
Casualties in the occupied territories and in Russia
According to reports, ten people were killed in Russian-occupied territories between May 1 and May 5. In particular, five people were killed in a drone attack on May 5 in Dzhankoi in occupied Crimea.
In addition, on May 5 in Cheboksary in the Chuvash Republic of the Russian Federation, at least two people were killed and another 35 were wounded, according to available information.
