UNICEF in
Ukraine
Death and destruction has been a constant in the lives of every child in Ukraine since February 2022. Such violence not only causes immense suffering; it also disrupts children’s development and tears at the fabric of societies, highlighting the challenges to Ukraine’s recovery and development. UNICEF remains on the ground working with partners to meet urgent needs. Learn more, including how to help.
Conflict and humanitarian crisis for children in Ukraine
UNICEF's humanitarian work in Ukraine has long focused on meeting children's immediate and long-term needs and safeguarding their rights. For many years — and well before conflict started in the eastern region in 2014, and sharply escalated in 2022 — UNICEF provided critical support to help close gaps in Ukraine's health system, particularly in the areas of childhood immunizations and HIV prevention.
That support swiftly ramped up as war intensified across Ukraine. UNICEF rushed emergency supplies into the country — including essential medicines, midwifery kits, surgical kits and other lifesaving supplies to health facilities where women were giving birth in makeshift basement bunkers. Assistance was increased across all major program areas, from water and sanitation to education to child protection.
After three years of full-scale war, at least 2,520 children in Ukraine had been killed or injured, and 1 in 5 had lost a close relative or friend. More than 1,600 schools and close to 800 health facilities — lifelines for children's recovery and resilience — had been damaged or destroyed.
And Ukraine had become one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, with unexploded ordinances covering nearly a third of the country.
UNICEF's humanitarian action in Ukraine continues alongside government and other partners to alleviate suffering, mitigate the myriad risks to children’s healthy development and lay a foundation for the country's long-term recovery. In frontline areas where intense fighting continues — and where humanitarian access remains constrained — UNICEF participates in inter-agency humanitarian convoys, working with local authorities and civil society partners to reach children and families in need of emergency assistance.
Every child in Ukraine continues to be at risk. Children with disabilities, children without parental care, children at risk of family separation, and children in institutions remain particularly vulnerable.
Insecurity and deprivation in Ukraine's eastern region a way of life even before Feb. 24, 2022
The rapid exodus in the days and weeks following the Feb. 24, 2022 escalation of conflict dwarfed all other previous refugee crises in terms of scale and speed. But even before the heavy weapons fire and air strikes on cities and civilian neighborhoods, insecurity and deprivation was already a way of life for families in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts due to a conflict that started in March 2014.
Humanitarian needs were particularly acute for those living in the vicinity of the 'contact line' separating government-controlled areas from non-government-controlled areas. The socio-economic and health impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic only compounded existing hardships.
UNICEF emergency response teams were deployed on both sides of the contact line, delivering humanitarian assistance to impacted communities. As war escalated, UNICEF quickly increased the number of emergency personnel and expanded their reach, focusing on the hardest-hit areas.
With its long-established relationships with local partners — and programmatic presence in the country since 1997 — UNICEF was able to scale relief operations quickly and has stayed and delivered every day since.
Three years on, UNICEF remains on the ground inside Ukraine addressing heightened risks to children's health, safety and mental well-being.
Helping millions of children and families impacted by war in Ukraine
The impact of UNICEF's response to war in Ukraine spans all major programs, from health and nutrition to education and child protection.
Together with parters, UNICEF has reached millions of children and their families with critical support and services, providing:
- access to primary health care in UNICEF-supported facilities or through mobile health teams
- access to safe water for drinking and domestic needs, by helping to restore and maintain municipal water systems
- mental health and psychosocial support to children, caregivers and frontline workers through a combination of direct services, capacity building and outreach to strengthen individual and community resilience
- humanitarian cash assistance to help families pay for food and other essentials, particularly during the harsh winter months
UNICEF and partners are also working together to address the profound impacts of three years of war on children's learning, by providing formal and informal education support.
Nearly 40 percent of children study only online or through a mixture of in-person and remote classes, with an average learning loss of two years in reading and one year in math. A growing network of UNICEF and partner-supported learning centers are helping them catch up.
In child protection, UNICEF continues to provide comprehensive case management services through mobile teams, child-friendly hubs and support to the state social workforce.
Gender-based violence prevention, mitigation and response interventions are top priority. UNICEF-supported outreach teams conduct awareness sessions in collective shelters and public spaces while also helping girls’ clubs organize peer-to-peer sessions.
In the central and western parts of the country, UNICEF works within existing national systems to help strengthen social services for children. One initiative, called Better Start to Life, focuses on strengthening early childhood development opportunities for the youngest children. A second initiative, called Better Learning and Skills, focuses on older children and youth.
UNICEF is also supporting ongoing efforts to reform Ukraine's childcare system, by expanding and improving family-based alternative care (i.e. foster care, guardianship and domestic adoption) for children without adequate parental care; safely reintegrating children living in institutions into family care; and transforming those institutions into community service providers.
“We know that when we invest in early childhood health and development, there is a longer-term return of investment of 9:1," UNICEF Ukraine Chief of Advocacy and Communication Toby Fricker explained at a February 2025 press briefing. "Improving access to and the quality of such services will also help create an environment that people will want to return to.
"We have seen how — despite the extreme challenges — Ukraine’s children, youth and families, as well as extraordinary social workers, teachers and water technicians have demonstrated incredible resolve," Fricker continued. "We are working together with them, not only on our humanitarian response but through development efforts."
Helping Ukrainian refugees in host countries
By the end of May 2022, just three months after the outbreak of full-scale war, 7.7 million people in Ukraine had been internally displaced by war and more than 6.4 million people — including nearly two-thirds of all children in Ukraine, at a rate of one child every second — had crossed into Poland, Romania, Moldova, Slovakia, Hungary and other neighboring countries.
In February 2025, three years in to full-scale war, roughly 3.7 million people remained internally displaced and 6.86 million remained displaced outside the country, 6.3 million of them in Europe.
Many Ukrainian refugees contend with limited access to health care and housing and face ongoing challenges integrating into society. UNICEF helps ease those struggles, working in ways that complement refugee-hosting country government efforts in order to address humanitarian needs and promote a sustainable transition for those families staying long term.
Hundreds of thousands of refugee women and children have been able to access health care, education and mental health and psychosocial support, with UNICEF's help.
To learn more about UNICEF's response to the war in Ukraine, read the situation reports.
Help UNICEF continue to save and protect children impacted by war and conflict, in Ukraine and around the world. Your tax-deductible contribution can make a difference. Donate today.
