Four people were killed in a Russian air raid on a Lysychansk building, Luhansk. Two more people were killed in the nearby Severodonetsk after a day’s worth of Russian shelling. One of the victims was killed when Ukrainian forces bombarded Donetsk. Another four people were killed by Russian forces in Sadivska in the north-eastern Sumy.
All those who were killed in the attacks on June 1st are thought to have been civilians.
According to BBC News analysis of data of the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, (Acled), a US-based non profit group that records violence and political death, deaths like theirs account more than one in three deaths recorded in Ukraine since February 24, according to BBC News.
Experts believe that the number of deaths recorded is likely to be significantly underestimated.
Russia and Ukraine claim that the number is in the tens or thousands, but their claims are not consistent and cannot be independently verified.
It is important to examine a variety of sources to determine the human cost of war. These include the United Nations and national governments as well as independent monitors.
This map shows the locations where death has been reported in wartime, from mid-June to now.
The violence has been most severe in the eastern and southern parts of Ukraine, which lie along the Russian border.
Acled in Ukraine counts incidents of violence like armed clashes and air strikes and places them once they are confirmed by local media or partner organisations. This means that the data it provides is more conservative than other sources.
Acled has recorded more than 10,000 deaths in Ukraine overall since the conflict started.
Some of the most severe casualties have been in Mariupol in the south-east and Kharkiv in the north-east. Bilohorivka in the east has seen the greatest number of deaths.
Acled’s totals show that BBC News has reported about 3,600 civilian deaths by mid-June. The UN however, has recorded about 4,700 civilian deaths during the conflict until the end of June.
Both claim that their numbers are far lower than the actual number of victims, due to the difficulties in obtaining information during war.
The UN seeks out to verify every death through police, hospital and other civil records.
Acled’s data does not include people who died as a result of war, but rather for other reasons like hunger or lack of health care.
This is especially important for places like Mariupol which was under siege for a long period with many civilians trapped inside.
Matilda Bogner, head of UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission to Ukraine, says that “in total we estimate [instead of the confirmed deaths] at least 3,000 civilians died in besieged and contested cities due to inability to get medical care or because their health was stressed amid hostilities.”
According to UN reports and BBC News analysis, air strikes and shelling are the leading causes of civilian death in Ukraine.
Acled data indicates that almost 1,000 civilians were killed in close-range attacks, with many occurring around the time of the attack on the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv.
The Geneva Convention and other international treaties make it a war crime to deliberately attack civilians or their infrastructure.
The Ukrainian prosecutor-general accused Russia of thousands war crimes, including direct targeting civilians.
Russia denies all allegations.
Gavin Crowden of Every Casualty Counts, a casualty-recording organization, said that the number of soldiers who die is sensitive information that shapes the story about how war is progressing for both sides.
He says, “That is something both sides will be very aware of.”
The official death toll for the conflict in Ukraine is not known.
However, in June, a senior Ukrainian presidential adviser told BBC News that 100-200 Ukrainian soldiers were being killed in the Donbas every day.
Russia claimed that it had killed approximately 23,000 Ukrainian soldiers in April.
Russia is not known for its troop deaths.
The most recent death toll was 1,351 Russian soldiers who died in the invasion.
The UK government reported that 15,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in April.
Ukraine releases regular figures on Russian military deaths. As of June 30, 35,000 Russians had been killed.
These claims cannot be verified.
The UN stated that it doesn’t consider figures provided by conflict participants reliable.
BBC News Russian has confirmed that at least 4,010 Russian soldiers have died. It also records the names of those who have died since the start of the war.
Sixty-eight of the identified persons were officers, while four were generals.
Many were lower-ranking privates or non-commissioned officers (NCOs).
These soldiers were repatriated to Russia by state media, social media and talking to others who knew them.
It is not known how many soldiers remain in Ukraine or how many have been identified.
Ms. Bogner states, “Everyday, the war takes dozens civilian lives and the lives combatants.”
These figures speak for themselves if human lives are important.
Jana Tauschinski, Libby Rogers and Kateryna Khinkulova provide additional data journalism.
