At least three children killed or injured on average daily in 500 days of war in Ukraine. Thousands more are displaced inside Ukraine seeking shelter from violence.
Your support will help provide children and their families with immediate aid, such as food, water, hygiene kits, bunker kits, psychosocial support and cash assistance. Together, we can protect children in crisis.
From 24 February 2022 to 23 June 2023, the UN has recorded over 25,000 civilian casualties including 1,624 children, 532 of whom died, with 1,092 injured — on average three child casualties every day. In Ukraine, over 90% of civilian casualties are a result of explosive weapons with a wide impact area, which are especially deadly for children who have smaller, more fragile bodies.
March 2022 remains the deadliest month for children in the last 500 days, with more than 240 children killed and 260 children injured. While numbers of child casualties have dropped since full-scale war initially erupted, children in Ukraine are still killed and maimed regularly.
This year, June has been the deadliest month for children in Ukraine, with 54 child casualties. Numbers were pushed up by last week’s attack in Kramatorsk, during which 11 civilians died including 14-year-old twin sisters and another teenage girl.
Along with the constant threat of death or injury, children in Ukraine experience significant psychological distress from air raid alerts, missile strikes and shelling that hit the country every day.
Meet Alina, a mother with two young boys you’ve helped.
Alina is Russian but was living in Ukraine with her family until the conflict erupted. Watch how your support is caring for her children after they escaped Ukraine.
Help save children in Ukraine
Ukraine is the second-largest country in Europe, after Russia, and has an estimated population of 44 million. Sadly, children in Eastern Ukraine have grown up in conflict for the past eight years, enduring violence, shelling and being displaced from their homes.
Following an escalation in hostilities that began on 24 February, fighting in Ukraine has forced children and families into basements and bomb shelters to escape explosions. In Eastern Ukraine, more than 400,000 children live in the areas at high risk of the direct impacts of the presence of soldiers and artillery, including being injured or killed by guns, landmines and explosive weapons or displaced from their homes.
Millions of children from Ukraine have been forced from their homes - either fleeing to neighbouring countries or living in bomb shelters. Children on the move across Eastern Europe are at risk of hunger, illness, trafficking and abuse. Distressed children and mothers have been forced to leave fathers and husbands behind after authorities ordered Ukrainian men aged 18-60 to stay and fight.
These children have experienced things no child should ever be exposed to. We are on the ground in Ukraine and neighbouring countries where families have fled providing life-saving food, clean water, shelter, and mental health support.
Civilians are seen after a missile struck a residential building during Russia's military intervention in left bank Kyiv, Ukraine
How to help children in Ukraine
Save the Children is urgently calling on all parties to the conflict to agree to an immediate cessation of hostilities to reduce the risk to children’s lives and wellbeing.
We are on the ground in Ukraine and neighbouring countries across Eastern Europe where families have fled providing life-saving food, clean water, shelter, and mental health support.
Help reach more children in need
We’ve been operating in Ukraine since 2014, including in the conflict-impacted regions of Donetsk and Luhansk.
Our humanitarian aid includes supporting access to education, providing psychosocial support, distributing winter and hygiene kits, and providing cash grants to families so they can meet basic needs like food, rent and medicines or invest in starting a new business. Our specialist teams provide children with access to safe, inclusive, quality education. Working with schools and community centres, we help support children to overcome the mental and psychological impacts of their experiences of conflict and violence and increase their ability to cope with stress in their daily lives.
Ukrainian children crossing border into Romania
Take action now
Your donation will go directly to Ukrainian children and their families impacted by war.
This will provide immediate aid, such as food, water, hygiene kits, psychosocial support and cash assistance.
*last updated 11.07.2023
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