Casualties in 2017—details

The 425 casualties identified in 2017 was a significant decrease on the 2016 casualty total of 785, and the 706 casualties identified in 2015. The Monitor recorded 2,078 mine casualties (725 killed and 1,353 injured) from 2014 through 2017.

A total of 113 of the casualties in 2017 were caused by improvised mines (victim-activated improvised explosive devices, IEDs). The improvised mines were commonly a tripwire-initiated fragmentation hand grenade.[2]

There is no centralized database for the collection of casualty data.[3] The vast majority of incidents in government-held territory are thought to be recorded either through open source monitoring and survey activity, it records far fewer incidents in non-government controlled territory, where it is likely that incidents are underreported. No international NGOs were working in non-government controlled areas in 2017.[4]

The Monitor has recorded at least 4,065 (2,503 killed; 1,562 injured) in Ukraine to the end of 2016.[5] The United Nations (UN) reported that more than 1,500 civilians were killed in Ukraine between 1945 and 1995 in mine/ERW incidents. Another 130 people were killed during clearance operations in the same period.[6] The Ministry of Emergency Situations (MES) reported that between 1996 and 2008 there were 229 ERW casualties (100 killed; 129 injured), including 59 children, due to “handling of devices.”[7]

Cluster munition casualties[8]

The Monitor has recorded 76 cluster munition casualties in Ukraine; 72 casualties during attacks and four due to the detonation of unexploded submunitions.[9]