Civilian casualties in Russia’s war against Ukraine rose by 37 percent in the first half of 2026, the United Nations said Tuesday, as Moscow’s missile and drone attacks increasingly hit cities and communities far from the front line. Danielle Bell, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, told reporters in Geneva that the mission documented 1,396 civilians killed and 7,978 injured in Ukraine during the first six months of the year, AFP reported.JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. That represented a 37 percent increase from the same period last year and “almost doubled what we documented in 2024,” Bell said. The escalation was partly driven by the growing use of long-range ballistic missiles and drones, which are increasingly “affecting densely populated urban areas that are far away from the front line,” she added. She pointed to a missile strike earlier this month in Kyiv that hit a residential complex, collapsing an entire section of the building, killing 19 civilians and injuring 76 others. Ukraine has endured repeated Russian missile and drone barrages targeting cities, energy infrastructure and civilian areas, with Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Odesa and other cities regularly coming under attack. The UN said long-range weapons were one of the key factors behind the rising civilian toll. FPV drones changing life near the front The second major driver of the growing casualty toll was the widespread use of short-range drones and glide bombs in frontline areas, Bell said.