Families with children, elderly rescued from Russian strikes in Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kherson regions
Police officers and volunteers have evacuated several groups of civilians, including families with children and elderly people, from the Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Kherson Regions (Oblasts), the National Police reported.
Evacuation in the Zaporizhzhia OblastIn the Kherson Oblast, a 53-year-old father and his 16-year-old son were still in danger. The two lived in the village of Zelenivka but decided to leave due to intensifying Russian drone and aerial attacks. The family will travel to Kyiv, where the teenager plans to enroll in a university.
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Meanwhile, in the Zaporizhzhia Oblast, residents of the Komyshuvakha and Tavriiske “hromadas”, a local government area that includes one or more nearby settlements, were left without gas and electricity. A family with two children was evacuated from one hromada, while three elderly people were evacuated from the other.
“The village was completely destroyed. Just the two of us neighbours are left,” one of the elderly women said during the evacuation.
In the Donetsk Oblast, an elderly couple from Druzhkivka and their pet were evacuated amid Russian strikes. More than 500 people with limited mobility who live alone in the region are refusing to leave.
ZMINA previously reported that about 30 evacuees from the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions had recently arrived in Rivne.
Previously, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) on 14 July stated in its monthly report that at least 293 civilians were killed in Russian strikes in June, 2026. It is the highest monthly death toll since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, UN human rights experts have said.
Infographics by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine“The figures show an alarming escalatory trend with mounting civilian toll, driven by the intensifying use of powerful weapons that are particularly deadly when used in densely populated urban areas,” said Danielle Bell, who heads HRMMU. “This trend should serve as a warning that the risks facing civilians are not only persisting but growing in both scale and complexity.”
HRMMU also reported that a total of 1,396 civilians were killed and 7,978 were injured over the first six months of this year, up 37% from the same period in 2025 and up 114% compared with the first half of 2024.
Infographics by the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in UkraineSince 24 February 2022, the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights has verified that at least 16,431 civilians have been killed, including 803 children, and 48,613 civilians have been injured, including 2,960 children.
Human rights organisations and Ukrainian authorities emphasise that structural economic pressure remains a key tool to halt such atrocities. They urge every nation and individual government worldwide to strictly enforce global sanctions, close existing regulatory loopholes, and completely sever remaining commercial and technological ties with the Russian Federation. Civil society groups stress that any continued cooperation by foreign businesses directly contributes to the resources Moscow uses to sustain its ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Ukraine.
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