Did Ukrainians kill 14000 Russian civilians in Donbas?
Russia claims that Ukrainian soldiers killed 14000 Russian civilians in Donbas (part of Eastern Ukraine where conflict took place) during the 2014–2021. Protecting Russian-speaking civilians was one of the reasons for Russia invading Ukraine. Where did this number come from? Shortly — this number comes from a UN report and is a total death toll, including military personnel from both sides. Civilian death toll is lower — about 3400 and includes 300 people from MH17 aircraft and there were very few casualties in the years 2020–2021. 14000 killed by Ukrainians is a lie. Read further for more details.
I don’t know where this claim originated, but Putin was one who articulated it in the beginning of invasion — that there were 14000 dead in Donbas from 2014. Technically he was correct — however he was silent about the fact that most of those were not civilians and that approximately half of these deaths were actually caused by pro-Russian separatists.
The number 14000 comes from the already mentioned UN report. It is pretty short — only three pages, so you can read it by yourself, however the most important passage is this:
OHCHR estimates the total number of conflict-related casualties in Ukraine from 14 April 2014 to 31 December 2021 to be […] 14,200–14,400 killed (at least 3,404 civilians, estimated 4,400 Ukrainian forces, and estimated 6,500 members of armed groups)…
By armed groups report means pro-Russian separatists. In another place the same reports describes what the 3404 civilians include the 298 deaths on board of a MH17 flight, so the number of actual Donbas civilian death toll is even lower — about 3100. And these were not deliberately killed by Ukrainian military. Unfortunately civilians die during the war if they are in the middle of a conflict.
Most of the civilian deaths (3039, which is 89% of total civilian casualties) happened during the first two years of a conflict. Death toll of 2020 or 2021 are much lower — 51 civilian deaths in total, 15 of which were caused by active hostilities (shelling, explosives drops etc) and other are usually the mines incidents.
Numbers are very clear that the hot phase of a conflict was in the past. By all the logic if indeed Russia wanted to protect their civilians they should have done it in 2014, not in 2022. However, in reality, it’s were Russian actions which sparked the conflict initially. Have they not organised and supported Donbas separatist movement, there would be no deaths at all.
Link to the report: https://ukraine.un.org/en/168060-conflict-related-civilian-casualties-ukraine
A bit longer article with more details: https://bitterwinter.org/donbass-did-ukraine-kill-14000-pro-russians/