Ukraine death toll is ‘thousands higher’ than reported, says UN

UN says many more civilians than the official 3,381 total have been killed in the war

A child and her family who fled from Mariupol arrive to a reception center for displaced people in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine (AP)

The head of the United Nations human rights monitoring mission in Ukraine said on Tuesday that the death toll in Ukraine is “thousands higher” than official figures.

At a press briefing in Geneva, Matilda Bogner, head of the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said that thousands more civilians had been killed in the country since the war began, with actual numbers exceeding its official death toll of 3,381.

“We have been working on estimates, but all I can say for now is that it is thousands higher than the numbers we have currently given to you,” Ms Bogner said after a trip to Ukraine last week where she visited areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv previously occupied by Russian forces.