Cost of war damage in Ukraine near $138B: Official

The total amount of damage to Ukraine's infrastructure during the ongoing war with Russia has increased to almost $138 billion, an official said on Wednesday.

"As of December, 149,300 residential buildings were damaged or destroyed," First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar wrote on Twitter, citing research by the Kyiv School of Economics.

Russia has deprived "hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian families" of their homes, she added.

The research showed housing and infrastructure-$54 billion and $35.6 billion, respectively-account for most of the total of $137.8 billion.

With the Ukraine war now in its 11th month, at least 18,483 civilian casualties have been recorded in the country, according to a UN update this week.

These include 7,068 fatalities and 11,415 wounded people, among them 838 children, the data showed.