During the 466 days of the so-called "special military operation" in the Donetsk oblast, 4,596 civilians have lost their lives, which is 180 times higher than the casualties reported for the entire Donbas in 2021. This information is based on a comparison of the "official" data from the so-called "DNR State Committee on Information and Communications" and the report from the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU).
The occupation authorities of the "DNR" claim that 757 civilians have been killed within the "republic's borders" prior to the start of the "special operation". Additionally, they acknowledged the death of 3,794 civilians in the so-called "liberated territories".
These figures cannot be considered accurate as they do not account for the mass casualties of civilians who died during the barbaric attacks by the russian Armed Forces in Mariupol, Volnovakha, Bakhmut, and other areas. Furthermore, the occupiers have not included the statistics of civilians killed as a result of shelling in the Ukrainian-controlled territories of the Donetsk oblast.
Even these significantly underestimated numbers demonstrate the terrible price that the region has paid for the so-called "military assistance" from russia. According to the UN HRMMU, during the entire year of 2021, the last pre-war year, there were 25 civilian casualties reported across the entire Donbas. They note that this is the lowest annual figure throughout the entire conflict period (2014-2021).