Conflict in Ukraine poses immediate threat to children
UNICEF is working to scale up life-saving support for children and their families.
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The conflict in Ukraine poses an immediate and growing threat to the lives and well-being of the country’s 7.5 million children. Humanitarian needs are multiplying by the hour as fighting intensifies. Children continue to suffer the consequences of this situation. Families are terrified, in shock, and in need of safety.
How to help UNICEF’s work with children in Ukraine
By donating money to UNICEF you are helping us provide continuous deliveries of safe drinking water, medical supplies and other necessary humanitarian aid, as well as psychosocial support for children from Ukraine.
The past eight years of conflict in Ukraine have already inflicted profound and lasting harm to children. Now, the immediate and very real threat to children from Ukraine. Homes, schools, and hospitals have all been affected. By 30 March, more than 2 million children had fled Ukraine and more than 2.5 million are internally displaced, as the conflict continues to ravage the country as families desperately seek safety and protection. Children fleeing the conflict in Ukraine are at heightened risk of human trafficking and exploitation. Meanwhile, civilian infrastructure like water and sanitation facilities has been compromised, leaving millions without access to safe water.
UNICEF is working with partners to reach vulnerable children and families with essential services – including health, education, protection, water and sanitation – as well as life-saving supplies.
How is UNICEF helping children and families in Ukraine?
UNICEF is working around the clock to scale up life-saving programmes for children. In Ukraine, this includes:
- Ramping up efforts to meet critical and escalating needs for safe water, health care, education and protection.
- Delivering midwifery, obstetrics, surgical medical kits, first aid kits and diagnostic and treatment equipment to temporary storage facilities around Kyiv city and Kyiv oblast.
- Delivering family hygiene kits, baby diapers, maternal health kits, institutional hygiene kits, disinfectants and bottled water to health and social institutions in eastern Ukraine.
- 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 traumatized children.
In neighbouring countries, support includes:
- Setting up Blue Dot hubs in partnership with UNHCR and local authorities, to provide critical support and protection services for children and families.
- Delivering supplies including tents, blankets, nutrition supplies, and education and recreation kits.
Latest news and information from Ukraine
What’s happening in Ukraine?
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. The country is running low on critical medical supplies. Fears of a wider public health crisis are growing as people flee their homes, health services are interrupted, and supplies fail to reach Ukraine, which has also been hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
By 15 March, more than 1.5 million children had fled Ukraine as the fighting continues to spread throughout the country as families seek safety and protection. Most families have fled to Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, Moldova and Romania. Women and girls travelling on their own are especially at risk of gender-based violence. For many others, life has moved underground as families seek safety in shelters, subways, or basements. Women are giving birth in makeshift maternity wards with limited medical supplies.
Children across Ukraine are in desperate need of safety, stability, protection and psychosocial care. Conflict and mass displacement has harmed families’ livelihoods and economic opportunities, leaving many without sufficient income to meet their basic needs and unable to provide adequate support for their children.
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 access 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.