On 24 September, at around 3:30 p.m. local time, the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, located in the Kharkiv region, was hit by numerous Russian airstrikes on several densely populated neighbourhoods, killing 3 people, and injuring at least 35 others. Among the casualties were a 17-year old girl and an 87-year old woman.
Numerous strikes were recorded in Kharkiv’s Shevchenkivskyi, Kyivskyi, Saltivskyi, and Nemyshlianskyi districts, causing extensive damage to residential buildings, a bakery, a stadium, a kindergarten and a children’s playground.
Kharkiv is Ukraine’s second largest city, and has a population of around 1.4 million people, and since the beginning of 2024, AOAV has recorded 2,300 civilian casualties due to explosive violence in the Kharkiv region, of which 310 people were killed and 1,990 injured. The number of civilian casualties recorded in te region has risen by around 192% in comparison to the same time period in 2023.
The same pattern can be seen across Ukraine, with AOAV recording a 28% increase in civilian casualties over the past six months, since March 2024. Since February 2022, AOAV has recorded 31,618 casualties, 87% of which are civilians (27,540).
In September 2024, AOAV has so far recorded around 1,206 civilian casualties as a result of explosive violence in Ukraine, a 9% increase from civilian casualties recorded in August. This figure is likely to increase in the few remaining days of September.
Urban residential locations, like the one hit in Kharkiv yesterday, are the worst impacted locations in terms of civilian casualties, accounting for 36% (10,164) of total civilian casualties recorded since the invasion. Other impacted locations are multiple urban areas (8,129 civilian casialties), and villages (3,299).
AOAV’s casualty figures represent the lowest of estimations in terms of the number of people killed and injured by explosive weapon use. In an effort to quantify the explicit harm caused by specific explosive weapons, AOAV solely records incident-specific casualty figures, as reported in English-language media.
AOAV condemns the use of violence against civilians and the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. All actors should stop using explosive weapons with wide-area effects where there is likely to be a high concentration of civilians.