Ukraine: civilian casualties hit 3 year high as UN urges ceasefire & nuclear safety | United Nations

“According to the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), in June, civilian casualties in Ukraine reached a three-year high,” said Miroslav Jenča, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia, and the Americas. Briefing the Security Council today (Jul 25) he cited intensifying violence across the country, including attacks near the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant. “On 11 July, a drone attack reportedly hit the city hall in Enerhodar, where most of the staff of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant (ZNPP) live, located only about five kilometres from the Plant,” Jenča said. The conflict’s reach has extended beyond Ukraine. “Moscow and St. Petersburg have also been targeted with dozens of drones, reportedly causing severe disruptions to air traffic,” Jenča noted, adding that over 2,000 flights were disrupted between 5 and 7 July. However, he stressed that the UN could not independently verify those incidents or any related civilian casualties in Russia. Despite these escalations, Jenča welcomed diplomatic efforts, “On Wednesday, Ukrainian and Russian delegations met in Istanbul for the third time this year. We welcome the continuation of these direct contacts between the sides and urge Ukraine and the Russian Federation to make further progress towards a ceasefire and a lasting settlement.” The humanitarian situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate amid severe funding shortages. Assistant Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Joyce Msuya warned that only 34 percent of the $2.6 billion required for the 2025 Humanitarian Needs and Response Plan has been received. Msuya said, “Cash assistance, mental health support, and services to respond to gender-based violence have been slashed due to funding shortfalls.” She added, “Without an immediate influx of resources, even prioritized programmes will be at risk – just as the people of Ukraine approach a fourth wartime winter.” U.S. Acting Representative Dorothy Shea called on countries, including China, to halt exports of dual-use goods to Russia. “Beijing's claim to have implemented strong export controls on dual use goods falls apart in the face of daily recovery of Chinese produced components in the drones, weapons and vehicles that Russia uses against Ukraine.” Shea said. China’s envoy, Geng Shuang, said, “China has never provided lethal weapons to any party to the conflict, and has always strictly controlled dual use materials, including the export of drones.” He also said, “We urge the US to stop shifting blames on the Ukraine issue all creating confrontation, and instead, playing a more constructive role in promoting ceasefire and peace talks.” Russia’s ambassador, Dmitry Polyanskiy, said, Ukraine’s leadership moved to dismantle independent anti-corruption bodies after they had prepared compromising materials and criminal cases against the president and his inner circle. He said a law was pushed through “his puppet parliament” to place those bodies under the control of the Prosecutor General’s Office. Polyanskiy said, “Right now, at this very moment, his [Zelensky] loyalists are busy destroying documents exposing corruption at the highest levels of power documents implicating the Kyiv usurper and his allies in the embezzlement of billions of dollars in budget funds and Western aid.” Polyanskiy added that after obtaining the incriminating materials, authorities appeared to backtrack in response to public backlash. He said the targeted institutions were created under Western pressure and were once seen as a “cure for corruption,” yet, he said, “today, we didn’t hear any of it here.” Ukraine’s delegate Khrystyna Hayovyshyn touched upon some claims made by Russia at a recent Security Council meeting regarding the issue of abducted children. She said the list of 339 names of children to be returned from Russia, submitted by Ukraine, was not a complete count, as Moscow previously claimed, but a preliminary confidence-building measure. While Ukraine maintains that thousands of children have been unlawfully taken, the limited list was shared to encourage cooperation. Hayovyshyn said that even in response to this smaller list, Russia has provided only partial information on fewer than one-fifth of the children. “Russia also mentioned children from the list allegedly ‘returned.’ In fact, only six children were returned, five of whom are siblings. This was the result of a year-long humanitarian effort mediated by the State of Qatar - a process demonstrating the power of third-party engagement, not Russian goodwill,” she said.


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