Incomplete OHCHR data on civilian deaths due to Russia's full-scale invasion is misleading as to the real scale of the war against Ukraine. This was stated in the volunteer legal front "Euromaidan SOS", which operates under the Center for Civil Liberties.

"The UN OHCHR needs to immediately change the presentation of information about the deaths of civilians in Ukraine as a result of Russian armed aggression. Now the UN briefing notes on the number of deaths contain a little-noticed disclaimer that the data is incomplete. In addition, it is noted that the organization only enters data after verification, which may give the impression that other official sources are inaccurate and that the discourse about mass killings of civilians is an exaggeration," the report says.

The office explains that the way OHCHR has chosen to report civilian casualties leads to a number of negative consequences:

1) despite appeals by human rights organizations, UN officials are still not present at the sites of combat operations, during evacuations and in Russian-occupied territories, but monitor and verify remotely. Consequently, they do not have objective data and often omit sources reporting the actual number of casualties. The publication of such data greatly damages the reputation of the international organization, which should be one of the most credible sources of factual information about one of the major international conflicts of the past decades

2) States and international organizations are guided by UN data and therefore have a distorted view of the situation, leading to a murderous delay in providing needed emergency humanitarian and military aid to Ukraine. In addition, incomplete data on civilian casualties is simply misleading as to the actual scale of Russia's war against Ukraine;

3) For example, according to the UN, from March 15 to April 15, the death toll increased by only 900, while only in the Kiev region after March 31, according to the official report of the National Police of Ukraine, about 900 civilians killed by the Russians were recorded. This diminishes the real scale of the aggression in the eyes of the international community and distorts the data for subsequent prosecutions of violations of international law by Russian troops;

4) incomplete UN figures are put in the headlines by foreign media, but the little-noticed disclaimer in the UN reports is ignored by readers and not even reprinted by most media outlets. As a result, readers remain convinced of the objectivity of the data and continue to spread inaccurate information through reposts and numerous reprints.

"We demand that the UN OHCHR make sure to put a prominent and clear disclaimer before the figures that the data is incomplete and does not reflect the real situation with the number of civilians killed as a result of Russia's war against Ukraine," the agency said.

According to the UN, 1,964 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since the Russian invasion, including 161 children.