GENEVA, Jan 16 (KUNA) -- The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) on Friday warned of a sharp deterioration in the humanitarian situation in Ukraine as winter intensifies amid widespread power heating and water outages caused by continued attacks on energy infrastructure.
This came during a joint press briefing in Geneva by UNICEF Country Representative in Ukraine Munir Mammadzade and IFRC Deputy Head of Delegation for Ukraine Jaime Wah.
"Children in Ukraine are under fire and freezing right now enduring the harshest winter of war," Mammadzade said, stressing that millions of families across the country are "in constant survival mode" after days without heating electricity or water as temperatures in some regions drop to minus 18 degrees.
He reported that recent strikes on energy facilities have triggered "a crisis within a crisis" with suffering now extending beyond frontline and rural areas to major cities including the capital Kyiv.
He cautioned that the lack of heating poses a serious threat to children particularly newborns due to the heightened risk of hypothermia adding that no deaths from hypothermia have been reported so far.
He also reported that education has been heavily disrupted explaining that schools have shifted to online learning following the declaration of an emergency but that power cuts and loss of connectivity have prevented thousands of children from continuing their studies.
UNICEF also reported a worrying rise in child casualties. Verified figures show an 11 percent increase in child casualties in 2025 compared with the previous year with 92 children killed and 652 injured this year alone bringing the total number of children killed or injured since the start of Russian Ukrainian war to more than 3,200 according to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission.
For her part IFRC representative Wah described the current season as "the hardest winter since the escalation of the conflict".
She pointed out that cold temperatures and continued attacks on heating and energy infrastructure are leaving millions without essential services putting in risk around 200,000 people in Kyiv alone.
She warned that the absence of heating exposes people to hypothermia frostbite and respiratory illnesses while unpredictable power cuts disrupt healthcare water supply transport and communications further isolating vulnerable groups such as older people children and persons with disabilities.
Wah also warned over a severe funding shortfall revealing that the IFRC's humanitarian appeal for Ukraine is only 13 per cent funded leaving a gap of 262 million Swiss francs (over 326 million dollars).
"Without urgent and sustained investments millions of people will be at risk without life-saving assistance during the coldest months of the year" she warned. (end) imk.ibi