Attachments
Highlights
• 616,838 people, drawn from households with three or more children or those with at least one child with a disability, have now been reached by UNICEF-funded multi-purpose humanitarian cash transfers.
• Since 24 February, UNICEF-supported mental health and psychosocial support interventions have reached 1,711,128 children and caregivers while 66,480 children and their families have benefited from specialized services through case management and referral to support services. Additionally, 80,867 women and children have been reached by UNICEF-supported gender-based violence prevention, risk mitigation and response services.
• Since 24 February, 3,987,013 people in Ukraine have been able to access health care as a result of supplies distributed, directly by UNICEF or in partnership with implementing organizations. In addition, 3,486,360 people were provided with access to safe drinking water and 538,728 people received critical water, sanitation and hygiene supplies.
• Since 24 February, 760,276 children have been engaged in formal or non-formal education and 280,326 children have benefited from learning interventions with supplies provided by UNICEF.
• At least 972 children in Ukraine have been killed or injured since the war erupted. Six months on, fighting remains heavy in eastern and southern parts of the country. Humanitarian access to affected children and families remains restricted. Additional concerns include the risk of outbreaks of acute waterborne diseases and the onset of harsh winter conditions.
• The updated inter-agency Flash Appeal estimates 17.7 million people in Ukraine to be in need of humanitarian assistance and protection, an increase of 2 million people compared to April 2022. UNICEF continues to scale up programmes to sustain critical services, save lives and mitigate against protection risks, including with winter approaching.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
Six months into the war, at least 17.7 million people have been affected in Ukraine, 1 nearly one-third of the country’s population. An estimated 6.6 million people are internally displaced,the majority being women and children trying to find safety across the country and facing risks of exploitation, gender-based violence (GBV) and family separation.
Although over 5.5 million internally displaced people have returned home and the overall number of people uprooted by the war has gradually decreased since May, vulnerabilities among displaced families are reported to remain high: 46 per cent are families with children aged 5 to 17 years.
As of 15 August, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine has verified over 13,000 civilian casualties (5,514 people killed, 7,698 injured) since the start of the war. At least 972 children in Ukraine have been killed or injured by violence since the war erupted nearly six months ago, an average of over five children killed or injured daily.
These are just figures the UN has been able to verify and the true number is likely much higher.
The war shows no signs of abating, with fighting concentrated in eastern and southern Ukraine. Safety concerns are high over military activity around Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, while risk of outbreaks of acute waterborne diseases, due to damaged water supply and sanitation systems and limitations in water treatment consumables, is becoming heightened in the east and south of the country.
As the conflict persists, Ukraine’s harsh winter is fast approaching. For vulnerable children and their families, this can significantly increase costs of living at a time when basic needs have escalated due to the conflict. UNICEF is rolling out a winter response to save lives and prevent or mitigate protection risks, especially for women and children. Critical assistance will help address extreme weather-related causes of poor health and negative coping mechanisms.
On 30 July, the Government of Ukraine announced mandatory evacuations from Donetsk region to central and western oblasts, due, reportedly, to the destruction of gas pipelines in the region and, as a result, the authorities’ inability to provide heating and other basic services during the winter.
Ukraine is gradually increasing grain exports, as part of a United Nations brokered deal to export produce trapped by the war. On 1 August, a first shipment since the escalation of the war in February marked a crucial step toward unblocking millions of tons of crops and easing global food prices. Grain exports are now continuing from three key Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odesa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.
The European Union (EU) has also granted candidate status to Ukraine which, as an EU candidate country, will undergo reforms to align the legislative, policy and institutional framework on children’s rights with international and EU standards. This provides an opportunity in the medium to long term, to integrate Ukraine’s reform agenda with a child-centred and resilience-building recovery plan, to achieve sustainable results for children in the country.