UN monitors verify 328 civilians killed in Ukraine in September as energy attacks resume

16 October 2026

The UN human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine verified that at least 328 civilians were killed and 2,105 injured in September, 85 per cent more than in September 2025. Casualties were recorded across 22 regions and the city of Kyiv, where civilians were killed or injured on 22 of the month's 30 days, more often than in any month since the start of the full-scale invasion. On the night of 6 to 7 October a cruise missile and drone attack killed 22 civilians and injured 45 in Pryluky, Chernihiv region. Danielle Bell, head of the monitoring mission, said the first two weeks of October were among the deadliest periods for civilians in years. On 13 and 14 October strikes hit multiple energy facilities including Kyiv's three main power stations, temporarily leaving 600,000 people in the capital without electricity, according to Ukrainian authorities. The International Organization for Migration said some 1.45 million returnees now live in frontline districts, that during the last cold season only 32 per cent of households could heat their homes adequately, and that around 2.1 million older people live alone in apartment buildings. Less than seven per cent of IOM's crisis response plan for Ukraine this year has been funded. Separately, the eighth localised ceasefire brokered by the International Atomic Energy Agency began on Thursday to allow repairs to a damaged backup transformer at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant.