Four years ago, the lives of every child in Ukraine changed forever. For many, the war has taken away their entire childhood – shaping how they learn, play, sleep and imagine the future.
Escalating attacks have impacted multiple regions in country, including those far from the frontline – a brutal reminder that nowhere in Ukraine is safe for children. Since 2022, more than 3,200 children have been killed or injured. Air raid sirens, blackouts, disrupted schooling, sleepless nights and freezing winters without heating are a part of daily life. Children and young people have experienced profound loss and trauma, affecting their development and wellbeing during the most critical stage of their lives. Today, more than 2.4 million children in Ukraine need humanitarian assistance, and a learning crisis is deepening with one in three unable to attend in‑person school full‑time.
Despite this, children and young people have shown incredible resilience in the face of war. They remain hopeful for the future, and UNICEF’s ongoing support is helping them overcome some of the challenges they face.
Here are some of the stories of the millions of young Ukrainians reached by UNICEF with life-changing support, made possible through the generosity of people like you.
Three-year-old Arina has only known a life of conflict
Millions of families across Ukraine are enduring days without heating, electricity or water, as much of the country’s critical infrastructure has been systematically damaged or destroyed throughout the conflict. The freezing winter months are especially harsh – parents struggle to keep their children warm, prepare hot meals and maintain basic hygiene, while prolonged darkness and cold heighten children’s fears and increase the risk of illness. This winter is the coldest Ukrainians have faced since 2022, forcing children and their families into constant survival mode.
After three days without electricity or heating in their home, as temperatures dropped to minus 15 degrees Celsius, three-year-old Arina and her parents sought warmth at a nearby mobile tent set up by Ukraine’s State Emergency Service.
"For children, the cold and darkness are especially hard... We dress her in layers and wrap her in a blanket, but sometimes it’s still not enough. Here, she can finally warm up and play."
Mobile tents like these operate in parts of Ukraine, providing warmth, hot drinks, device charging stations and psychosocial support. UNICEF supplies the tents with Psychological First Aid in a Box kits, which include toys and activities to help children like Arina relax and cope with anxiety during power outages. After just a few minutes inside the tent, Arina removes one of her jumpers and begins playing with modelling clay, while her father, Andrii, prepares hot tea nearby.
As winter outages persist, UNICEF continues to support Ukraine’s emergency response by providing psychosocial support to children during the harshest days of winter. Thanks to supporters like you, children like Arina have a chance to reclaim their childhoods from war.
An unexploded device left Daniiel with life-changing injuries
Unexploded devices are another daily threat facing children. Ukraine is now one of the most mine-contaminated countries in the world, with ongoing fighting leaving an estimated 23 per cent of the country contaminated by landmines and other explosive remnants of war. These deadly objects can be found in rivers, forests and fields, along roadsides, in residential areas and playgrounds – even hidden in children's toys. To the untrained eye, they can easily be mistaken for harmless scraps of metal. Between February 2022 and March 2025, 110 Ukrainian children were killed or injured after encountering an explosive remanent of war.
One of those children is 12-year-old Daniiel, who was seriously injured when an unexploded device detonated in his hometown. He had been riding his bike with his friends when they came across the device. Daniiel suffered severe injuries, and dozens of pieces of shrapnel remain in his legs.
A few months later, heavy fighting forced his family to leave their hometown. Daniiel has been living elsewhere in eastern Ukraine with his mother, younger brothers and grandparents. He hopes that one day he will be able to play volleyball again – his favourite sport before the accident.
To help keep children safe, UNICEF is supporting age-appropriate explosive ordnance risk education across Ukraine. This includes comprehensive online mine safety training for teachers, state emergency service workers and police officers, as well as the distribution of child-friendly learning materials such as comic books, cartoons, posters and games. In 2025, UNICEF and our partners reached more than 1.5 million children and caregivers with explosive weapons awareness and prevention education, alongside tailored support for survivors of explosive remnants of war.
Svitlana has lost her childhood to war
Like many young people in Ukraine, 14-year-old Svitlana has been forced to grow up far too fast. The eldest daughter in a family of six, she loves drawing and used to attend an art school, but now she has little opportunity to pursue her passion.
“I have to look after my younger siblings and go to school. There’s not enough time,” she says. While she dreams of a creative career in the future, for now she entertains her little brother with her drawings.
Svitlana and her family are from a city on the frontlines of the conflict. When the full-scale war began, the family fled west to a small village near the Hungarian border, where they stayed with relatives. What was meant to be a short stay stretched into more than two years. Being far from home and struggling to find work made life increasingly difficult, and last year, despite the ongoing danger, the family made the decision to return to their hometown.
Their home is in an area under active shelling, forcing the family to share small rooms in a communal building in a quieter part of the city. But even there, safety isn’t guaranteed.
"There’s shelling every day. Just a week after we returned, the area where we live was shelled. A shop was hit, and a woman was killed – she had just gone to buy groceries."
Ukraine is enduring one of its harshest winters yet, with damaged infrastructure leaving frontline cities without central heating for days at a time. UNICEF and our partners are supporting families like Svitlana’s with humanitarian cash assistance, warm blankets, and hygiene kits – support that makes a significant difference for a family of six. UNICEF is also helping the city transition to decentralised heating systems, strengthening protection against future outages.
Despite the cold and danger, Svitlana’s family holds onto the hope that one day they will be able to live without fear.
Veronika finds creative outlets for her pain
When 16-year-old Veronika looks back on the first days of the full-scale war, she remembers a frightened child who couldn’t imagine a future beyond the next day. Her family fled their home almost overnight, sent west by her father as the news grew more frightening.
“It felt like my life was put on pause,” Veronika recalls. “There were so many questions and no answers. Even breathing felt hard.”
Four years on, Veronika has grown into a strong, thoughtful young woman. She is a top-performing student in her final year of school, a pianist with multiple awards, a member of an all-girl rock band, and a dedicated volunteer in her community.
"The war took so much from my family. My plans, our sense of safety, our home as it used to be – all of that stayed in the past. But I don’t let darkness take over. My creativity, music and my friends help me resist it."
Before her father’s death, Veronika had planned to leave school early to study medicine. But the war changed her plans. Instead, Veronika stayed in school and later applied to university in a safer part of the country. “In a way, she gave herself two more years of childhood,” her mother, Marina, says with a gentle smile.
Now, Veronika is preparing for national exams, attending catch-up classes at a UNICEF-supported school and studying with tutors. Being able to learn in person gives her a sense of stability and hope. “It’s the way to make my dream real,” she says. “I want to help people and save lives.”
When she isn’t studying, Veronika turns to music. After her father died in the war, the piano became a place for grief and healing. Now, whether she’s playing piano or performing with her band, she uses creativity to transform her pain into light. “I don’t give darkness a chance to change me,” she says.
Denys is rebuilding his life after displacement
The first nights in Romania were the hardest for 18-year-old Denys. He would jolt awake to the sudden sounds of sirens from the fire station near his new apartment, heart racing, unsure if the sound meant bombs were falling.
In the early days of the war, Denys’ family feared their hometown, near the Belarusian border, could be attacked next. While his father stayed behind, Denys and his mother began the long journey south, crossing into Romania to reach his older sister, who was already living there. Leaving home meant letting go of the small routines that he loved about his daily life, like playing football with his friends after school, stopping for ice cream on the way home, and spending time with his dad.
When Denys first arrived in Romania, he was shy and kept mostly to himself. That changed after he discovered a local Ukrainian Youth Hub, a place supported by UNICEF offering activities, learning opportunities, and a place where young people can connect and feel understood. Denys says the hub gave him the space to express himself, build trust and gain confidence as he adjusted to life in Romania.
"Without it, I don’t think I would have found my way. It helped me understand myself better, find people I could trust, and learn how to live."
Since the start of the war, UNICEF has been supporting similar initiatives across Romania, helping displaced children and their families adapt to their new lives and regain a sense of stability and belonging. Today, more than a third of Ukraine’s children remain displaced, including more than 1.7 million who are living as refugees outside the country.
Denys hopes that one day, he can return home to Ukraine. But even four years on, the war still weighs heavily on his mind – especially the feeling that the world is moving on.
“I noticed recently that most of the people here in Europe… it’s almost like they forgot, like the war has finished, like nothing is happening in Ukraine,” he says. “But there are still people dying over there, children dying.”
For every child, peace
After four years of full‑scale war, the suffering of children and young people in Ukraine suffering is intensifying. Repeated displacement, loss, fear and deprivation are taking a heavy toll on children’s mental and physical wellbeing. Even far from the frontlines, children’s lives are under threat. Nowhere in Ukraine is truly safe for children.
UNICEF remains on the ground, working with partners to deliver urgent assistance including education, mental health and psychosocial support, and humanitarian cash assistance so families can afford the essentials. But our work relies on the continued generosity of people like you.
Children in Ukraine need more than temporary ceasefires – they need lasting peace and a future free from fear.
Children of Ukraine Crisis
After four years of war, children need you more than ever. Donate to UNICEF's ongoing efforts in Ukraine.
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