Europe
UN: Ukrainian authorities report six civilians killed and 84 injured as attacks cut power and water in 11 regions
OCHA, briefed by the UN deputy spokesman on 16 October, relays Ukrainian reports of six civilians killed and 84 injured and outages across 11 regions, plus the UN monitoring mission's September toll.
The United Nations said on 16 October that another wave of large-scale attacks in Ukraine had killed and injured civilians and disrupted electricity and water supplies, including in areas far from the front line. The information was given at the UN noon briefing by Deputy Spokesman Farhan Haq, who relayed reporting from the UN humanitarian office OCHA.
Casualties and outages
According to OCHA, Ukrainian authorities reported at least six civilians killed and 84 injured between 15 and 16 October. These figures come from the Ukrainian side and were relayed by the UN; the briefing did not give a Russian figure for the same period.
Power and water were disrupted in 11 regions, OCHA said. In Volyn Region, about 270,000 households and businesses lost electricity. The UN office added that scheduled and emergency power cuts continue, and that falling temperatures increase the risks for people when infrastructure is damaged.
Aid workers and facilities
OCHA also reported that attacks in the Donetsk and Kharkiv regions over the previous four days had killed an aid worker and injured others. A humanitarian office, a food warehouse and a marked evacuation vehicle were damaged, according to the briefing.
September civilian toll
Haq also cited the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, which recorded at least 328 civilians killed and more than 2,100 injured in September. The mission put this at an 85 per cent increase over the same period last year, and said long-range missiles and drones caused more than half of the casualties.
Asked about monitoring in areas held by Russia, Haq said the UN cannot provide the same resources there because it lacks access. The mission’s figures therefore rest on the verification it is able to carry out.
Background
Separately, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke in Brussels about the scale of Russian drone attacks; see our report Trump calls Ukraine’s refinery strikes a “disgrace”; Zelensky, in Brussels, answers: “Yesterday we had a thousand drones” – and asks the EU for €70 billion and 300 Patriot missiles. The UN transcript is marked as being for information media and is not an official record.
