Category World News

Last year was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since 2022, as casualties soared amid flaring hostilities along the front line and Russia’s expanded use of long-range weapons, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said.

In a report published on Monday, the UN monitor said that “the total civilian casualties in Ukraine in 2025 reached at least 2,514 killed and 12,142 injured, which is a 31 percent increase compared to 2024 … and a 70 percent increase compared to 2023”.

The vast majority ⁠of the casualties in the Russia-Ukraine war that were verified by the watchdog occurred in Ukrainian government-controlled territory from attacks launched by Russian armed ​forces, the report found.

Increased efforts ‍by Russian armed forces to capture territory in 2025 resulted in the killing and injuring of civilians, destruction of vital infrastructure, halting of essential services and new waves of displacement in front-line areas, the monitor said.

Almost two-thirds of all casualties last ‍year occurred in front-line ⁠areas, with older people particularly affected as they remained in their villages. Civilian casualties caused by short-range drones also increased sharply, it added.

“[But our] monitoring shows that this rise was driven not only by intensified hostilities along the front line, but also by the expanded use of long-range weapons, which exposed civilians across the country to heightened risk,” Danielle Bell, head of the UN monitoring mission, said in a media release attached to the report.

Hundreds of thousands of soldiers on both sides are believed to have been injured or killed in Europe’s ​deadliest war since World War II, although neither side releases full figures.

The UN has verified almost 15,000 civilian deaths, it said in the report, but added that the “actual extent of civilian harm … is likely considerably higher” since it is impossible to verify many cases and there is no access to areas that have come under Russian occupation.

Thousands of Ukrainian civilians were killed in 2022, the war’s first year, during a long Russian siege of the port of Mariupol and assaults on cities before the front line hardened in place.

Since then, Moscow has continued to use missiles and drones to strike cities across Ukraine. Russia denies deliberately targeting civilians, but says its attacks on Ukrainian civil infrastructure are justified because it hinders the war effort.

Ukraine also targets civil infrastructure in Russia and Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine, though on a far smaller scale.

Meanwhile, in Russia, the UN monitor noted that Russian authorities reported that attacks by Ukrainian armed forces killed 253 civilians and injured 1,872 in the Russian Federation last year. Due to a lack of access and limited publicly available information, the watchdog could not verify these numbers, it added.

In February, the war will enter its fifth year. But the issue of territorial concessions remains a major sticking point.

Last November, United States President Donald Trump unveiled a 28-point peace plan for Ukraine that involved Kyiv ceding not only large amounts of land that Russia has occupied during nearly four years of war, but also some territory that Kyiv’s forces currently control.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has, however, stated on numerous occasions that this is unacceptable to Ukraine.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has said that there are no current talks between Havana and the United States, as US President Donald Trump ratchets up threats against Cuba following his attack on Venezuela.

Diaz-Canel stated in a social media post on Monday that routine coordination on immigration continues between Cuba and the US, but that no larger talks are currently taking place.

“We have always been willing to maintain serious and responsible dialogue with the various US administrations, including the current one, on the basis of sovereign equality, mutual respect and the principles of international law,” Diaz-Canel said.

He added that relations between the US and Cuba should be based on international law rather than “hostility, threats, and economic coercion”.

Trump has said that the US could ramp up pressure on Cuba after the US abduction of Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro in a January 3 attack that killed at least 100 people, including 32 members of the Cuban security forces in the country for security cooperation.

The US president stated on Sunday that Venezuelan oil supplies to Cuba would be cut off and that the government in Havana should “make a deal” with the US before it’s “too late”. Trump also told reporters that the US was “talking to Cuba” without offering further details.

Diaz-Canel responded to Trump’s comments on Sunday by saying that Cuba was a “free, independent, and sovereign” country and would defend itself “to the last drop of blood”.

Venezuelan oil was an important economic lifeline to Cuba, isolated and under heavy US sanctions, providing 35,000 barrels of oil per day before the US attack, according to estimates from Jorge Pinon of the Energy Institute at the University of Texas at Austin.

Pinon, who tracks the shipments, also estimates that Mexico supplies Cuba with approximately 5,500 barrels of oil per day, while Russia supplies 7,500.

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has previously said that the US attack on Venezuela has increased the relative importance of Mexican oil to Cuba, but that Mexico has not increased oil sales to Havana.

Sheinbaum, who has responded to recent threats from Trump of possible military strikes against criminal groups on Mexican soil with a firm insistence on the country’s sovereignty, said that she spoke with Trump on Monday to discuss cooperation on issues such as commerce, security, and drug trafficking.

“We had a very good conversation with US President Donald Trump,” Sheinbaum said in a social media post, adding that the talks included a discussion of security “with respect to our sovereignties”.

At least 116 prisoners have been released in Venezuela after their arrests during the presidency of Nicolas Maduro, the government has announced, nine days after the United States abducted Maduro.

Venezuela’s Ministry of Penitentiary Services reported on Monday that the prisoners had been released “in the past few hours”. It followed a similar release a few days ago.

The ministry added that those freed had been “deprived of their liberty for acts associated with disrupting the constitutional order and undermining the stability of the nation”.

Two Italian citizens were also released, and Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani pledged to upgrade Rome’s relations with Caracas in response.

Dozens of dual Italian-Venezuelan nationals remain in prison.

However, the Foro Penal group, a human rights organisation, contended earlier on Monday that only 41 people had been released, including 24 people freed overnight.

The release of political prisoners in Venezuela has been a long-running call of human rights groups, international bodies and opposition figures.

Human rights groups estimated there are 800 to 1,200 political prisoners in Venezuela.

The releases, which began on Thursday, came after pressure by US President Donald Trump, who stated that Washington was “in charge” of the Latin American country following the military operation on January 3 to abduct Maduro, which sparked global protests and criticism.

Maduro now faces drug-trafficking charges and is currently being held in a prison in New York.

On Saturday, Trump celebrated the release of the prisoners in what he called a “big way”.

He added that he hopes those freed “will remember how lucky they got that the USA came along and did what had to be done”.

A papal audience

In the meantime, Venezuelan opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner Maria Corina Machado met with Pope Leo XIV during a private audience on Monday.

So far, few details have been released about the meeting.

On Friday, the pontiff called for Venezuela’s sovereignty to be protected and issued an appeal “to respect the will of the Venezuelan people and to safeguard the human and civil rights of all.”

Machado, who is currently touring Europe, is expected to meet with Trump this week after he said on January 3 that she did not have the support or respect to lead the country.

She had dedicated her Nobel Peace Prize to Trump, who deeply covets the honour himself.

The Venezuelan opposition, which has been supported by Republican and Democratic administrations in the US, had pledged to replace Maduro with one of their own.