How conflict in Ukraine poses immediate threat to children

The past eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine have inflicted profound and lasting damage to children on both sides of the line of contact. Now, the suffering extends across the country. Hundreds of thousands of people are without safe water or electricity due to damage to infrastructure, and many have been cut off from health care. UNICEF is working with partners to reach vulnerable children and families with essential services, including health, education, protection, water and sanitation. 

How is UNICEF helping children and families in Ukraine?

UNICEF is working around the clock to scale up life-saving programs for children. This includes:

• Ramping up efforts to meet critical and escalating needs for safe water, health care, education and protection.
•  Propositioning health, hygiene and emergency education supplies as close as possible to communities near the line of contact.
•  Working with municipalities to ensure that there is immediate help for children and families in need.
•  Supporting mobile teams providing child protection services and psychosocial care to children traumatized by the chronic insecurity.
•  Continuing emergency response efforts to address the COVID-19 outbreak, including by working with municipalities to increase COVID-19 vaccination rates, and by strengthening awareness-raising and capacity-building efforts.

What’s happening in Ukraine?

The conflict in Ukraine poses an immediate and growing threat to the country’s 7.5 million children. Hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed, while damage to civilian infrastructure has left hundreds of thousands of people without safe water or electricity.

 As fighting intensifies, hundreds of thousands of people are on the move – many torn from their families and loved ones. Women and girls travelling on their own are especially at risk of gender-based violence.

 After eight years of conflict in eastern Ukraine, children and their families need systematic protection services to address gender-based violence and violence against children, and to assess psychosocial care. Mine risk education and mine victim assistance are critical as explosive ordnance contamination remains a major threat to life, safety and stability.

 UNICEF calls for an immediate cease-fire and reminds all parties of their international obligations to protect children from harm, and to ensure that humanitarian actors can safely and quickly reach children in need.

 Millions of children could be caught up in the violence as the fighting intensifies in and around the country’s major urban centers. Children are especially vulnerable to being injured or killed when weapons and explosive munitions are used in populated areas.

“The use of explosive weapons in cities could quickly turn this crisis into a catastrophe for Ukraine’s children,” said afshan khan, UNICEF’s Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia. “There are no armed operations of this scale that do not result in children being harmed. The consequences will be tragic.”

 Since 24 February, 17 children have been killed and 30 have been injured. These are only the reports that the United Nations has been able to verify – the true number of child casualties is likely far higher.

 The conflict has also sparked massive population displacement that could soon constitute one of Europe’s largest refugee crises since the Second World War. Half a million children have already fled Ukraine to neighboring countries, with the number of refugees continuing to grow.

 Hundreds of homes have been damaged or destroyed, and there are reports of schools, orphanages and health centers sustaining heavy damage.