Under fire and freezing, children in Ukraine endure the harshest winter of war

GENEVA, 16 January 2026 – “The winter scenario in Ukraine that we all feared is now a reality. Intense strikes devastating vital energy and water systems at a time of extreme sub-zero temperatures. 

Millions of families across the country are enduring days without heating, electricity, and water supplies.

Children and their families are in constant survival mode. With no heating at minus eighteen degrees Celsius, life at home in a high-rise apartment is about staying safe from incessant attacks and surviving extreme temperatures. 

On the tenth floor of one such building on Kyiv’s left bank, Svitlana is doing what she can to care for her three-year-old daughter Arina. 

She told us that they’ve had no heating or electricity for more than three days and that was in the first week of disruptions – many families continue to go without or have sporadic access. Cold water comes only intermittently. Families have reverted to stuffing soft toys, or anything, against the windows to block some of the freezing cold. 

Svitlana can’t bathe Arina or prepare hot food. So, she wraps her child in multiple layers and navigates ten floors of the dark stairwell to reach a tent set up outside by Ukraine’s State Emergency Services. There, they can warm up, get hot food, charge devices and speak with a psychologist - or simply sit in the warmth. 

UNICEF has also equipped the tents with psychosocial support materials, which provide children with games and toys to play and relax, helping both children and adults to cope with increased anxiety.    

For children, the impact of such harsh conditions is both physical and mental. Darkness and freezing temperatures intensify fear and stress, and can lead to, or exacerbate respiratory and other health conditions. 

The youngest are the most vulnerable. Newborns and infants lose body heat rapidly and are at heightened risk of hypothermia and respiratory illness, conditions that can quickly become life-threatening without adequate warmth and medical care.

Education has also been disrupted again. The extreme cold has led to schools and kindergartens in the capital and other areas switching fully to remote learning, but power outages in-turn disrupt online classes."