On Monday 24 March, a Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy injured 99 civilians, including 23 children. The attack comes amid ongoing talks between Russian and US delegates in Saudi Arabia regarding a possible ceasefire deal between Ukraine and Russia.
The strike hit both residential areas and infrastructure facilities in the city, including a children’s hospital, and has caused extensive damage. Despite talks of a possible ceasefire, this incident is part of Russia’s ongoing bombardment of Ukrainian towns and cities.
Since the beginning of 2025, AOAV has recorded 698 incidents of explosive violence in Ukraine, resulting in 2,478 civilian casualties, 391 killed and 2,087 injured. March has been the most harmful month for Ukrainian civilians this year.
Air-launched weapons, specifically airstrikes, accounted for 47% (1,163) of civilian casualties in 2025, and ground-launched weapons accounted for 31% (757) of civilian casualties.
AOAV has recorded incidents of explosive violence in 17 oblasts in 2025. The oblasts most impacted are Kherson (615 civilian casualties), Donetsk (613), Zaporizhizhia (293), Kharkiv (290), Sumy (243), Dnipropetrovsk (206).
The map below shows the 17 oblasts (highlighted in red) where AOAV has recorded explosive violence this year:
Following trends recorded throughout the conflict in Ukraine, so far in 2025, over 90% (2,248) of civilian casualties have been recorded in populated areas.
The three event locations most affected in 2025 so far are shown below:
| Event Location | Civilian Casualties |
| Urban Residential | 54% – 1,339 civilian casualties |
| Multiple (Urban) | 26% – 647 civilian casualties |
| Village | 5% – 146 civilian casualties |
Over 96% of casualties recorded in Ukraine this year are civilians, and this has consistently been the case since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022. As illustrated in this incident and as seen in many conflicts recorded by AOAV, civilians continue to be disproportionately impacted by explosive violence, with the majority of incidents occurring in populated areas where civilians are likely to be present.
AOAV reiterates its condemnation of the use of violence against civilians and the use of explosive weapons in populated areas. All actors should stop using explosive weapons with wide-area effects where there is likely to be a high concentration of civilians.
To read more about our research of explosive violence in Ukraine, please see our casualty monitor here.
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