UNICEF warns that “very serious consequences are beginning to emerge” for children after four years of war in Ukraine

The head of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) office in Dnipro, Pablo de Pascual, warned this Thursday that “there are very serious consequences for boys and girls in Ukraine that are already beginning to emerge” and has asked to “transmit their voices” given the “great vulnerability” faced by minors, of whom nearly 800,000 are internally displaced after more than four years of war.

“They are very vulnerable in their home sphere, in the social sphere, in contact with others, in the projections they may have about the future; that trauma, that affectation, those lack of access… In the end these consequences are very serious for children and are already beginning to emerge,” he stated during an interview with Europa Press.

In this sense, he has stressed the importance of “making visible the continuity of aid” given children in the face of the defects of an armed conflict that “extends to many places with a large child population.”

“We have the conception that everything happens on the front line, but it also affects more remote areas. We are even talking about kyiv, which has suffered a lot with access to water and heating during the winter. Children are suffering a lot there and that can happen in large urban centers in the east, which are also a little further from the front line but also suffer in the same way,” he explained.

That is why UNICEF has launched an “adaptation” process that includes “reprioritization” so that “the most vulnerable” have access to aid, especially due to cuts to international assistance by countries like the United States.

“We have all suffered this. It has been something that has undoubtedly somewhat limited our field of action or expectations. That being said, we in Ukraine with our local partners have carried out a reprioritization exercise so that the most vulnerable have access. This adaptation is where we are,” he stated.

In relation to the measures put in place to address the needs of children, he stated that support “must be comprehensive.” “The pillars of the international humanitarian community are structured around displacement, evacuations, front lines and response to attacks, and they are something that we have incorporated as a strategy, especially in the water system, in education and in the social system,” he added.

Regarding the visibility of the conflict, he stressed that “it is variable.” “I believe that the level of impact in some areas is now greater, and there is a humanitarian response where before we operated with other modalities. There is variability and the humanitarian response must be adapted, but there is no stagnation,” declared De Pascual.

A RAW WINTER

“We are in the middle of a winter that is being especially hard for the civilian population; it is also my second winter and this one is particularly hard, with many more cuts in access to very basic goods,” he maintained, while emphasizing that displacement still affects 2.5 million children inside and outside the country.

De Pascual has denounced that it is a “complicated situation, in which they tend to go to neighboring cities that can offer means to the family economy so that they can recover.” “We are seeing these displacements, which mean that there are affected populations. This affects schools, hospitals, even social services, which must be reinforced due to demand,” he noted.

Likewise, he expressed that UNICEF has made an appeal for this year focused especially on water and sanitation: “this involves support for heating systems.” “This also has to do with the fact that sanitation is linked to infrastructure and complex services. (…) Behind it are education and the protection of children,” he stressed.

“With the increase in airstrikes, children across the country are suffering in their ability to access the most basic services, such as education or health. It is not a war that somewhat restricts the area of ​​vulnerability of children to a specific geographical area, but rather it has expanded. It is a way of drawing attention to the fact that children in Ukraine are affected in many places, in many geolocations, in a multiple way, and with trauma that is accumulating,” he remarked.

“That is why it is important now more than ever to maintain this continuity of support so that they continue to benefit from these services. It is important to maintain education and guarantee support for the institutional fabric so that specific cases of children with trauma and other conditions (…) are not left aside, because the child has not only been accumulating experiences throughout these years but has suffered particularly,” he continued.

ATTACKS AGAINST ENERGY INFRASTRUCTURE

In addition, he has criticized Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, which are “electricity generation or distribution attacks.” “Many times, it is these systems that allow the heating system to operate: this affects both the civilian population in their homes and institutions or social services, such as schools or hospitals,” he noted.

“This creates interruptions or possible interruptions in the supply of services, and our objective is to create an alternative system to provide continuity, either with generators, facilitating quick repairs and other long-term repairs so that the systems are a little more resistant and can absorb these impacts,” he indicated.

UNICEF recalls that children are “suffering a lot” during this winter and warn that they “live with trauma and manifest situations of depression.” “This can affect, as it already is, the way they relate and integrate socially,” De Pascual stressed.