The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) has documented 2,858 civilian casualties (2,788 a day before) in the country, including 1,104 (1,081) killed (from February 24 when the Russia invaded Ukraine to 24:00 midnight on March 25, 2022 (local time).
“OHCHR believes that the actual figures are considerably higher, especially in Government-controlled territory and especially in recent days, as the receipt of information from some locations where intense hostilities have been going on has been delayed and many reports are still pending corroboration,” the UN said in the document.
According to him, this applies, for example, to Izium (Kharkiv region), and Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Severodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are allegations of hundreds of civilian casualties. These figures are being further corroborated and are not included in the above statistics.
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, including shelling from heavy artillery and multi-launch rocket systems, and missile and air strikes,” the UN said in the report.
According to confirmed UN data, some 221 men, some 221 women, 30 boys and 15 girls killed, while the sex of 51 children and 620 adults has not yet been known.
Among the 1,754 injured, some 30 girls and 24 boys, as well as 70 children, whose sex is yet unknown.
Compared to the previous day, three children were killed, and four more children were wounded, according to the UN.
OHCHR said that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight March 26, there were 295 (285) dead and 681 (672) injured in government-controlled territory, and 59 (59) dead and 227 (224) injured in territory controlled by self-proclaimed “republics.”
In other regions of Ukraine under government control (Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Sumy, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 750 (737) killed and 846 (811) wounded.
OHCHR notes the report of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine, according to which as of 8 a.m. (local time) 26 March, 136 (135) children had been killed and 199 (184) injured.
OHCHR also notes the report of the Head of the Investigative Department of the National Police of Kharkiv region, according to which as of 6 p.m. (local time) 25 March, 323 (306) civilians had been killed in the region, including 15 (15) children.
An increase in figures in this update compared with the previous update (as of 24:00 midnight on 24 March 2022 local time) should not be attributed to civilian casualties that occurred on 25 March only, as during the day OHCHR also corroborated casualties that occurred on previous days.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has approved a loan from the French Development Agency for a total amount of up to EUR 300 million in 2022.
“State external borrowing in 2022 is carried out by raising a loan from the French Development Agency for a total amount that does not exceed EUR 300 million and is provided in accordance with a loan agreement between Ukraine represented by the Finance Minister as a borrower and the French Development Agency as a creditor, within provided for by the law on the 2022 national budget of Ukraine,” the government said in resolution No. 358 dated March 24.
According to the terms, the loan amount bears interest at a fixed annual interest rate of 1.04%, which is paid every six months.
The final repayment of the loan is carried out after 15 years from the date of conclusion of the loan agreement (taking into account the grace period for deferring loan repayment for a period of five years from the date of conclusion of the loan agreement).
Ukraine will carry out a sowing campaign wherever there are no active hostilities, as of March 25, some 150,000 hectares of agricultural land have been sown in the country, the website of the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food reported on Friday.
These indicators are 1.5 times higher than last year – as of March 25, 2021, some 106,000 hectares of agricultural land were sown in Ukraine as part of the spring sowing campaign.
“We already see that in Kherson, Odesa, Mykolaiv, in spite of everything, the sowing campaign has begun under Ukrainian flags,”, First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotsky said.
It is clarified that due to the military aggression of the Russian Federation in Ukraine this season, a decrease in the area under high-margin crops (sunflower and corn) is expected while increasing the area under crops that are easier to produce, but important from the point of view of food security – peas, barley and oats.
“These crops used to be niche, but they are simpler in terms of technology, and, nevertheless, important for people’s nutrition. Therefore, there will be such a shift from export-oriented crops to food crops for domestic consumption,” Vysotsky specified.
According to the ministry, Russian aggression will lead to a reduction in the area under crops in Ukraine by a third, which threatens the food security of 100 million residents of countries importing Ukrainian agricultural products, mainly from North Africa, the Middle East and Southeast Asia.
Turkey continues to maintain contacts with both Ukraine and Russia, and the primary task of its diplomacy is to achieve a settlement of the situation, the Anadolu agency quoted Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying.
“We maintain diplomatic contacts with both sides, discuss all proposals and support all initiatives aimed at establishing peace,” he said at a press conference following the NATO summit in Brussels.
Erdogan noted that Turkey maintains special relations with both countries.
“For this reason, the first task of Turkish diplomacy is to stop hostilities. Peace in Ukraine must be ensured according to a formula that will suit the two countries and the world community. It must be a stable and strong peace,” the Turkish President added.
In response to Belarus’ unfriendly actions against employees of Ukrainian diplomatic institutions in Minsk and Brest, Ukraine has taken a number of measures, in particular, reducing the number of staff of the Belarusian embassy in Ukraine to five people, Spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Oleh Nikolenko has said.
In addition, the Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine is canceling the diplomatic accreditation of other employees of the Belarusian embassy. Their and the family members’ stay on the territory of Ukraine is declared undesirable.
In addition, Ukraine establishes for Belarusian diplomats after their return to the country a permissive regime of movement outside the 40-kilometer zone from the center of Kyiv, and also cancels the exequatur of the honorary consul of Belarus in Lviv.
“We warn the Belarusian authorities that any further unfriendly steps towards Ukraine will receive an immediate and decisive response,” Nikolenko said on his Facebook.
Earlier, the Belarusian authorities decided to expel some Ukrainian diplomats and close the Consulate General of Ukraine in Brest, the Belarusian Foreign Ministry said.
From February 24, 2022, when Russia started the war against Ukraine, until 24:00 on March 23, 2022, civilian casualties amounted to 2,685 people (in the report a day earlier – 2,571), including 1,035 dead (977), reports the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday.
“UNHCHR believes that the real numbers are much higher, especially in government-controlled territory, and especially in recent days, as information from some places where there has been intense fighting has been delayed, and many reports are still awaiting confirmation,” it said.
According to him, this applies, for example, to Mariupol and Volnovakha (Donetsk region), Izium (Kharkiv region), Severodonetsk and Rubizhne (Luhansk region), Trostianets (Sumy region), where there are reports of numerous civilian casualties. They are subject to further verification and are not included in the above statistics.
“The majority of civilian deaths or injuries were caused by the use of explosive devices with a wide area of effect, including shelling from heavy artillery and multiple launch rocket systems, as well as rocket and air strikes,” the report says.
According to confirmed UN data, 214 men, 160 women, 28 boys and 14 girls died, while the sex of 48 children and 571 adults has not yet been determined.
Among the 1,650 injured, there are 28 girls and 23 boys, as well as 67 children, whose sex has not yet been determined.
Compared to the previous day, nine children were killed and ten were injured, according to the UN.
The office indicates that in Donetsk and Luhansk regions, as of midnight on March 24, there were 255 (224) dead and 646 (621) injured in government-controlled territory, and 56 (55) dead and 211 (202) injured in the non-controlled territory.
In other regions of Ukraine under government control (in Kyiv, as well as in Zhytomyr, Zaporizhia, Kyiv, Sumy, Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy and Chernihiv regions), the UN recorded 724 (698) dead and 793 (771) injured.
