Children in Ukraine have endured hardest winter of war – UNICEF

Ukrainian children have endured "the toughest winter" since the start of the war due to Russian attacks on energy, heating and water supply infrastructure, UNICEF said.

Source: a war update report presented to the UN Human Rights Council during a session in Geneva

Details: As a result of attacks, children lost between 79% and 88% of effective learning time.

Deputy UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Nada Al-Nashif noted that Russia intensified attacks on Ukraine's infrastructure this winter. In particular, strikes on systems that heat residential buildings caused "severe hardship for civilians".

Al-Nashif pointed out that Ukraine lost more than half of its electricity generation capacity as a result of large-scale attacks, leading to prolonged power outages.

"Hundreds of thousands of civilians were left without heating, some for weeks and even months, in temperatures that often fell below minus 15°C," she said.

UNICEF also stressed that due to disruptions to electricity, water and heating supplies, children in Ukraine experienced "the toughest winter" since the start of the full-scale invasion.

"Children lost an estimated 79 to 88% of effective learning time between mid-January and mid-February," said UNICEF human rights specialist Anne Grandjean.

Yevhenii Tsymbaliuk, Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, said Russia is deliberately terrorising civilians, seeking to punish those who remain in their homes and refuse to submit to the regime.

German representatives also expressed concern about intensified Russian attacks on civilians, saying they "instill fear and trauma", while China stressed its commitment to peace negotiations to resolve "the Ukraine crisis".

Meanwhile, the Russian delegation accused the deputy high commissioner of supporting the "Kyiv regime" after the report.

Background: This winter was the coldest in the past 15 years. In Kyiv, the average monthly temperature was minus 4.0°C, which is 1.5°C below the climate norm.

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