A local woman sits in front of the damaged residential building in Shebekino, Belgorod region, Russia, 2 July 2023. Photo: EPA-EFE/STRINGER

The Russian Investigative Committee has confirmed the deaths of 621 civilians who were killed in Ukrainian attacks on Russian regions since the start of the war, the committee’s head Alexander Bastrykin said on Monday, quoted by state-owned agency TASS.

Speaking at the St. Petersburg International Legal Forum, which runs until Wednesday, Bastrykin said that 38 minors were among the dead, while at least 3,217 people had been injured in the same period, including 249 children.

Since the start of the war, the Investigative Committee has initiated 3,000 criminal cases relating to the attacks, mainly in the Belgorod, Kursk, Bryansk and Rostov regions, all of which border Ukraine, in areas of southern Russia and in annexed Crimea, Bastrykin continued.

The given death toll would represent a significant rise from recently quoted figures. Independent news channel 7X7 previously reported that at least 394 Russian civilians had died in Ukrainian attacks between February 2022 and December 2024.

In October, Russian Human Rights Commissioner Tatyana Moskalkova reported the death of 398 civilians of the Belgorod, Kursk and Bryansk regions in Ukrainian attacks for the same period. She claimed that another 1,157 people had been injured.