July 2026 became the bloodiest month for Ukraine’s civilian population since May 2022. According to data from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission, at least 437 civilians were killed and 2,610 were injured during the month. This is 30 percent higher than in June, when 298 people were killed, and 70 percent higher than in July of the previous year, when 312 civilians died.
Among the victims, children stand out as a separate category – 17 killed and 166 injured. The monitoring mission has not recorded such figures since April 2022, the most intense period of fighting for Mariupol, Lysychansk, Popasna and Sviatohirsk.
Missiles and UAVs Remain the Main Threat
Long‑range weapons – missiles and strike drones – caused the largest share of losses: 38 percent of total casualties, or 183 killed and 967 injured. The main targets of these attacks were not front‑line cities but settlements deep in the rear.
The most destructive episode of the month was the attack on Kyiv on 2 July, when missiles and drones took at least 30 lives and injured another 97. Four days later, on 6 July, the capital was struck again – 19 civilians were killed and 57 injured. On the same day, a similar attack hit Vyshneve in Kyiv Oblast, where seven residents, mostly women, were killed.
Precision air bombs increased their presence in the casualty statistics. The number of victims from airstrikes rose by 143 percent compared to June – from 45 to 105 killed, from 308 to 753 injured. This type of weapon became the second most lethal cause of civilian losses in a month. On 11 July an air bomb hit Sumy, killing six people and injuring 41. Another airstrike on 24 July struck Slavyansk in Donetsk Oblast – five killed and 26 injured.
Read also:
The Magic Game Teaches Children to Avoid Human Trafficking Traps Online
Front‑line Drone Attacks Break Records
Attacks by small strike drones near the front line in July reached the highest monthly figure since the full‑scale invasion began on 24 February 2022. These attacks killed 111 people and injured 710 – a quarter of all documented casualties that month.
Civilians were affected in fourteen regions and in Kyiv. The highest number of casualties was recorded in the capital – 54 killed and 202 injured. Kherson suffered 34 killed and a record 424 injured, making it the region with the most wounded civilians in a month. In Zaporizhzhia 27 people were killed, 280 injured; in Sumy – 20 killed and 152 injured.
Black Sea Ports Under Attack
July saw an escalation of attacks on maritime traffic and port infrastructure in Odesa and Mykolaiv Oblasts. The monitoring mission recorded at least 39 such attacks, of which twenty were directly aimed at vessels. Some of these strikes damaged not only infrastructure but also people – 19 killed and 25 injured among port workers and sailors.
On 19 July a missile struck a vessel in the Black Sea near Odesa. Ten people died – nine crew members and a marine pilot – and eight were injured. These attacks hinder international grain and other agricultural shipments via the Black Sea, which are vital to food markets far beyond Ukraine.
Data from Occupied Territories Remain Incomplete
In the territory controlled by Russia, 25 civilians were confirmed dead and 50 injured. The monitoring mission stresses that access to information from occupied areas is increasingly restricted, complicating verification of victim reports. The real figures there are likely to be significantly higher than the officially documented numbers.
Researchers also point to cases that have not yet entered July’s statistics due to lack of confirmed information or access to the site. These include an attack on a market in occupied Tokmak, Zaporizhzhia Oblast on 3 July, where unverified reports say five people died and 21 were injured; an attack in Kapitanivka, Kyiv Oblast on 24 July with possible twelve dead and over a hundred injured; and an attack on a recreation base in occupied Krylivka, Zaporizhzhia Oblast on 25 July, where preliminary data indicate twelve dead and nineteen injured. These cases will be included in the report after verification.
Since the full‑scale invasion on 24 February 2022, the UN monitoring mission has documented 68,147 civilian casualties – 16,874 dead and 51,273 injured. July’s dynamics show that four and a half years after the war began, the intensity of attacks on civilians does not decline and periodically returns to the levels of the hardest months of 2022.
Read also:
5.8 million Ukrainians became refugees abroad – UNHCR report