Drones now most common cause of death for civilians in Ukraine war, U.N. says

A war crimes prosecutor works at a site of a Russian drone attack, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, on the outskirts of Lviv, Ukraine June 19, 2024. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Short-range aerial drones were the most common killer of civilians in Ukraine in January, the U.N.’s monitoring mission said on Tuesday (February 11, 2025), highlighting how drone use has ballooned during three years of war with Russia.

The U.N. mission said at least 139 civilians were killed and 738 wounded in January 2025, with 27% of the deaths and 30% of the injuries caused by short-range drones.

In total, the U.N. says nearly 12,500 civilians have been killed in the war including 650 children – though it has repeatedly said its tally is an undercount since it only includes deaths its teams have managed to verify.

Aerial drones, which at the start of the war were mostly seen as an auxiliary tool, have become one of the most important battlefield weapons in the conflict, with both Ukraine and Russia producing well over a million each in 2024.

“Our data shows a clear and disturbing pattern of short-range drones being used in ways that put civilians at grave risk,” a press release quoted the U.N. monitoring mission’s head Danielle Bell as saying.

“The on-board (drone) cameras should allow operators to distinguish with a higher degree of certainty between civilians and military objectives, yet civilians continue to be killed in alarming numbers.”

Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, though many thousands have been killed since it launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbour in February 2022.