At least 24 people were reported killed and over 300 injured \u2013 including 32 children \u2013 when ballistic missiles struck Ukraine\u2019s Dnipro and Odesa regions on Monday and Tuesday, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
The attacks destroyed homes, schools, hospitals, and other civilian infrastructure, and left hundreds wounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe attacks struck during the day when civilians were at work, on trains, or at school,\u201d said Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe timing alone made the high number of civilian casualties entirely foreseeable.\u201d<\/p>\n
On 23 June, two ballistic missiles launched by Russian forces hit Lyceum No. 1, a middle school in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi, Odesa region. Although the school year had ended, staff and students were present for administrative work. The strike killed three educators and injured 14 others, including two boys.<\/p>\n
The school, which served over 700 students, sustained critical damage.<\/p>\n
No military objective<\/p>\n
HRMMU, which visited the attacks sites, reported no evidence of military presence at the school, and people confirmed that no military presence had been stationed there.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe school in Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi was not a military objective,\u201d Ms. Bell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cYet it was hit by two ballistic missiles, killing educators and injuring children.\u201d<\/p>\n
The following day, 24 June, missiles struck an industrial area of Dnipro city at around 11 AM local time. The blast shattered windows in nearby schools, hospitals and residential buildings.<\/p>\n
HRMMU confirmed that two dormitories were hit, injuring numerous residents. A nearby passenger train was also impacted \u2013 windows blown out by the shockwave \u2013 injuring more than 20 travellers, according to a UN monitor onboard.<\/p>\n
A troubling trend<\/p>\n
These strikes followed a series of other attacks in June that have resulted in significant civilian harm, including in Kyiv city on 17 and 23 June, according to the human rights mission.<\/p>\n
Civilian casualties in the first five months of 2025 were nearly 50 percent higher than during the same period last year, with increases typically seen during the summer months.<\/p>\n
\u201cBallistic missiles, when used in densely populated areas, cause predictable and widespread harm to civilians, as demonstrated by these recent attacks,\u201d Ms. Bell said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rising civilian casualties reflect the severity of that risk.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"At least 24 people were reported killed and over 300 injured \u2013 including 32 children \u2013 when ballistic…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":215978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7654],"tags":[2000,299,657],"class_list":{"0":"post-215977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ukraine","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-ukraine"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114749913455110762","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=215977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/215977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=215977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=215977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=215977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}