Under Fire and Freezing: Ukrainian Children Face the Harshest Winter of the War, Warns UNICEF.
Geneva:
As Ukraine enters what UNICEF describes as the harshest winter of the war, millions of children are struggling to survive amid relentless attacks, freezing temperatures, and widespread power and water outages.
Speaking at a press briefing at the Palais des Nations in Geneva, UNICEF Representative to Ukraine, Munir Mammadzade, said the worst fears about winter conditions have now become reality. Intense strikes have devastated vital energy and water infrastructure at a time when temperatures have plunged as low as minus 18 degrees Celsius.
Across the country, families are enduring days without heating, electricity, or running water. For children, this means living in constant survival mode — facing not only the threat of attacks but also extreme cold inside their own homes.
In a high-rise apartment building on Kyiv’s left bank, a mother named Svitlana is doing everything she can to protect her three-year-old daughter, Arina. During the first week of disruptions, the family went more than three days without heating or electricity — a situation that continues for many households, either constantly or intermittently. Cold water comes only occasionally, forcing families to stuff soft toys, blankets, or any available material into windows to block the freezing air.
Without electricity, Svitlana cannot prepare hot food or bathe her child. Wrapped in multiple layers, she carries Arina down ten dark flights of stairs to reach a tent set up by Ukraine’s State Emergency Services. There, families can warm up, receive hot meals, charge devices, and access psychological support — or simply sit in warmth.
UNICEF has equipped these tents with psychosocial support materials, including games and toys, to help children cope with fear, anxiety, and stress caused by prolonged darkness, cold, and insecurity.
According to UNICEF, the impact of these harsh conditions on children is both physical and mental. Freezing temperatures and lack of heating can worsen respiratory illnesses and other health conditions. The youngest children are at greatest risk: newborns and infants lose body heat rapidly and face a heightened danger of hypothermia and life-threatening respiratory infections without adequate warmth and medical care.
Education has once again been severely disrupted. Extreme cold has forced schools and kindergartens in Kyiv and other regions to switch fully to remote learning. However, frequent power outages have made online classes unreliable or impossible, further interrupting children’s education.
Despite these immense challenges, Ukrainian energy and water technicians are working around the clock to repair damaged infrastructure. UNICEF is supporting this race against time through a large-scale winter response aimed at assisting 1.65 million people, including 470,000 children.
Preparations made months — and even years — earlier are helping reduce the impact of the crisis. Following recent strikes that caused total blackouts in Zaporizhzhia and Dnipro, hospitals were able to continue operating and maintain water supplies thanks to generators and solar power systems installed well before winter. In Kyiv, UNICEF deployed generators from pre-positioned stocks to damaged heating stations, preventing a complete shutdown of life-saving services.
UNICEF is now sending 79 high-capacity generators to water and heating companies nationwide and working with municipalities to provide more sustainable heating solutions. Winter cash assistance has reached more than 183,000 people, including 86,000 children, in frontline areas, enabling families to meet urgent needs. In addition, winter grants are being provided to 1,500 educational facilities, helping nearly 445,000 students learn in safer, warmer, and more child-friendly environments.
Nearly four years into the conflict, UNICEF warns that children’s lives remain dominated by survival rather than childhood. The winter crisis follows a tragic 11 per cent increase in verified child casualties in 2025 compared to the previous year. At least 92 children were killed and 652 injured last year alone. Since the start of the full-scale war, more than 3,200 children have been killed or injured.
UNICEF has once again called for an immediate end to attacks on civilian areas and on the critical infrastructure that children and families depend on to survive.
