UNICEF in
Ukraine
UNICEF has been supporting vulnerable children and families in Ukraine since 1997 — expanding and extending that work when conflict erupted in the eastern region in 2014, and then deploying a full-on emergency response as war escalated in 2022. UNICEF remains on the ground in Ukraine meeting urgent needs.
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.
UNICEF's humanitarian action in Ukraine continues alongside government and other partners. 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.
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. Three years on, as war persists, UNICEF remains on the ground in 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 inside 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
- formal and informal education, to keep kids learning and help them catch up on what they've missed — there is a growing network of UNICEF-supported student learning centers
- humanitarian cash assistance to help families pay for food and other essentials, particularly during the harsh winter months
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.
Helping Ukrainian refugees in host countries
By the end of May 2022, a mere three months since the sharp escalation in the conflict, 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.
As of December 2024, 3.7 million people remained displaced, with an estimated 6.2 million refugees still 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 Ukraine's most vulnerable children and families. Your tax-deductible contribution can make a difference. Donate today.
