Kyiv, Ukraine - The number of confirmed civilian casualties in Ukraine is drawing toward 18,000, according to figures released by the United Nations, as Russia's 10-month war on its neighbor 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.

From February 24, when Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, to December 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.

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"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 Donbass, which comprises the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.

Russian forces have indiscriminately shelled and bombed populated areas, killing civilians and destroying hospitals, schools and other civilian infrastructure, the UN has said previously.

On Wednesday morning, reports from the recently liberated city of Kherson bore that out, as artillery fire hit a maternity hospital.

According to Ukraine's Television Service of News, no one was hurt, as patients and staff had been previously taken to a shelter.