Lights in the darkness

The war in Ukraine has caused significant damage to vital infrastructure, impacting children and families’ access to electricity, heating, water and telecommunications. Without electricity, children have been forced to cope with plunging temperatures in badly damaged homes.

For almost 2 million children in Ukraine, attending classes online is the only access to education, with thousands of pre-school, primary and secondary schools damaged or destroyed. 

Varvara lives with her mother Victoria and his 11-year-old brother Tymofiy in Bucha, Kyiv region. Here, temperatures have plummeted, and the ongoing war has plunged her home into cold darkness. She uses flashlights and candles to read and do her homework.

“Sometimes, I'm afraid to walk through the corridor as there is no light. I just don't like it when there is no electricity. It reminds me that the war is going on.”

While Varvara hopes that there will be peace on her next birthday, Andrei celebrated his 6th birthday fleeing war.

Jointly established by UNICEF and UNHCR, together with local authorities and partners, “Blue Dots” are safe spaces along border crossings in neighboring countries that provide children and families with critical information and services. 

Here, UNICEF staff surprise Andrei with an improvised birthday cake – a Papanasi, a traditional Romanian dessert. It’s a small gesture that brings a huge smile to Andrei’s face, and is a welcome moment of joy after the trauma of displacement.

As attacks in populated urban areas go on unabated, families continue to be separated, and the lives of children inside and outside Ukraine torn apart. One year into the conflict, children continue to cope with fear, anxiety and grief associated with loss of loved ones, separation from family, forced displacement from their homes, isolation, and complete upheaval of their childhoods. An estimated 1.5 million children are at risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other mental conditions.

Nine-year-old Diana left her hometown of Kharkiv, north-eastern Ukraine, in March last year and returned in July only to find her neighbourhood of Saltivka destroyed, including her old school. The remaining buildings have no gas or water. Blasts have left holes in the roofs and few windows remain intact. Diana was shocked to see the devastation left by the war. 

Living in the midst of the fighting, the sounds and strikes of war are everywhere. Diana takes comfort in caring for her cat. “When there’s shelling, my kitten Murzik gets scared, and I hold him and kiss him and tell him, ‘Don't worry Murzik, it's going to be all right.’ And we sleep like that in the corridor,” she says. “Last night there was a lot of shelling; it was very noisy and Murzik was scared. I covered him with a blanket and kissed him until he fell asleep next to me.”

In the 365 days since the war escalated in Ukraine, UNICEF has been working with national and local authorities, as well as civil society organizations in Ukraine and neighbouring countries to deliver emergency assistance, access to education, health and mental health support, and life-saving information to children and their families.