GENEVA: The number of confirmed civilian casualties in Ukraine is drawing towards 18,000, according to figures released by the United Nations, as Russia’s 10-month war on its neighbour grinds on.
The Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) stressed that the actual toll on Ukrainians was “considerably higher” but that obtaining reliable data from front-line areas was difficult, the German Press Agency (dpa) reported.
From Feb 24, when Moscow launched its full-scale military operations, to Dec 26, there were 17,831 civilian casualties recorded in the country: 6,884 killed and 10,947 injured.
Among the killed were 429 children, the UN agency said in a statement late Tuesday.
“Most of the civilian casualties recorded were caused by the use of explosive weapons with wide area effects, including shelling from heavy artillery, multiple launch rocket systems, missiles and air strikes,“ it said.
The hardest-hit area was the Donbas, which comprises the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.-Bernama