Nearly five years of war: what it means for children and how we're helping
The situation now
Nearly five years since full-scale war erupted in Ukraine, children are still living through one of the world's most severe humanitarian crises. 2026 is on track to be the deadliest year for civilians since 2022: according to the UN, more civilians were killed and injured in the first eight months of 2026 than in the whole of 2025. On Monday 9 November 2026, the UN said it had verified 874 children killed and 3,504 injured since February 2022. The real numbers are likely higher.
According to our own analysis of official alert data, by February 2026 children in Ukraine had endured an average of around 4,000 hours of air raid alarms since February 2022 - the equivalent of more than five and a half months of continuous alerts. In frontline areas and the Kyiv region, that figure reaches approximately 7,000 hours. For some children, the sound of sirens has become the soundtrack of their entire childhood.
Today, 10.8 million people need humanitarian assistance in Ukraine, including 2.2 million children. Around 3.5 million people remain displaced inside the country, many surviving in damaged homes or crowded accommodation. Over 4,200 schools and other education facilities have been damaged or destroyed, and one in three children still cannot attend school in person full time. Since September, air raid alarms have sounded on nearly two-thirds of school days, almost double the rate a year ago.
Page updated November 2026.
Heorhii* (7) and his mother Olha* live in eastern Ukraine and have both sustained severe blast injuries during the war. Heorhii* and Olha* have received ongoing case management support via Save the Children's partner, Slavic Heart, which has included psychosocial support, cash assistance, food, clothes and supporting access transport and medical services.
What this means for children
The psychological toll on children is severe. Our research from 2024 found that more than four in 10 children were suffering from psychosocial distress, with some developing speech defects, uncontrollable twitching, nightmares and disrupted sleep.
Around half of all air raid alerts fall between 9pm and 7am, robbing children of consistent sleep and a sense of safety. Parents report children becoming anxious and withdrawn; some have developed physical symptoms from the stress. "Our children have suffered both psychologically and physically," says Anna*, Social Worker from Slavic Heart, who helped Heorhii* and Olha* after a missile attack. "It is very hard for them to hear constant explosions. This creates fear in children and in parents."
Despite all of this, children in Ukraine continue to show extraordinary resilience - and that resilience deserves to be met with sustained, meaningful support.
With the right support, children can recover. When an explosion destroyed Olesia's* home in Kharkiv region in April 2025, the 6-year-old and both her parents were injured by shrapnel. Afterwards, Olesia* became withdrawn and anxious and struggled to sleep. Our team referred the family for psychological support and medical check-ups, and gave them cash to repair the roof, windows and doors. Olesia* also started going to a Child Friendly Space - a safe place where children can play, learn and get emotional support. Today she is building her confidence again, making friends and smiling more often.
Our response
We've worked in Ukraine since 2014, and rapidly scaled up after February 2022. Led by a local team of around 200 staff and around 25 partners, we've helped more than 5 million people - including more than 2 million children - in Ukraine since the war escalated. In 2025 alone, we supported over 434,100 people through safe learning spaces, mental health support, cash assistance and essential items.
Here's what that support looked like in 2025:
Through our education programmes, we supported 148,200 children via Digital Learning Centres for remote learning and by rehabilitating schools and nurseries - including support for teachers and children with disabilities.
Through child protection, we helped 77,800 children to stay safe by running child-friendly spaces where they can learn, play and receive mental health support, while also training local partners to protect children from dangers including landmines.
Ukraine is now the most heavily mine-contaminated country in the world, according to the UN. That's why our partner runs interactive Mine Risk Education sessions. From September 2025 to March 2026, over 9,150 children attended these sessions. They learn a simple rule that could save their lives: Stop - Do not touch - Call 112. One unexpected highlight? A 6-year-old German Spitz called Chivas, who helps keep children engaged during the sessions. Children are more relaxed, more focused, and more likely to remember the safety rules when he's around. Read Chivas's story on our blog.
Through cash and livelihoods support, we helped 20,500 people to rebuild their lives, providing cash and agriculture grants, and launching community-led recovery projects. A youth hackathon in Mykolaiv empowered young people to design their own recovery initiatives - 10 of which are now being funded.
Through water, sanitation and hygiene support, we provided 165,400 people with essential items, safe shelter and hygiene supplies.
Through advocacy, we worked with local authorities in Dnipropetrovsk region to help children grow up in safe, family-based environments instead of institutions, expanding care options for children who need it most.
Volodymyr*, 47, and his wife Mariia* are raising their 7-year-old son Bohdan*, who was born prematurely and requires constant rehabilitation.
For families like Volodymyr*'s, that support has been life-changing. Through Save the Children, the family received financial assistance to resume rehabilitation sessions, a stationary bike for daily physical exercise at home, and essential items including winter clothing and bedding. "We want the war to end," says Volodymyr*. "And most importantly - that thanks to rehabilitation, our child will grow up not being confined to a bed."
Repairing homes after attacks: Viktor's* story
Viktor*, 15, lives in Dnipro with his mum, his grandfather and his three siblings. Their home has been hit twice. In July 2025, Viktor* and his older brother were looking after their younger brother and sister when they heard an explosion. "Then I told my younger sister to go to our grandfather's room. I also carried my younger brother there in my arms," Viktor* says. Seconds later, a second blast blew out the windows, damaged the roof and cracked the ceiling.
In February 2026, as the family got ready for bed, a drone strike tore the roof off their home and their neighbour's. They covered the holes with blankets to keep warm until morning.
Save the Children gave the family cash to replace the roof, windows and doors. "We definitely could not have managed financially on our own," says his mum, Iryna*. "Save the Children staff worked very quickly." Through the same project, 101 families in Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia, with 70 children between them, made their homes safe and warm again.
Viktor's* dream is simple: "That the war will end. That's all. Nothing else."
Viktor*, 15, is from a family of six in Dnipro whose home was damaged twice by shelling, first in July 2025 and again in February 2026, leaving the house severely damaged. With financial support from Save the Children, the family was able to repair their home and improve their safety. Despite the challenges they have faced, Viktor* and his mother hope for a future where children can grow up free from the fear and uncertainty of war. Danil Shevchenko / Save the Children
Nazar*, 16 hugs his mother Kseniia*, 47, Kharkiv
Blast injuries: the long road to recovery
Behind the statistics are children like Nazar*, a 16-year-old from Kharkiv. In May 2024, while Kseniia* and her husband were at work, Nazar* went to play football with his classmates at the school stadium. A few hours later, Kseniia* received a phone call from her husband, who said in a frightened voice, “Leave work - something terrible has happened." Shrapnel wounds covered almost every part of his body. Emergency surgery saved his leg - but what followed was a two-year rehabilitation process, including nerve reconstruction surgery in Austria that lasted seven and a half hours.
"After I got injured, my mom stayed with me every single day for two years," Nazar* says. "Without her, I would have quit rehabilitation. But she never let me give up."
With support from Save the Children and our partner the Ukrainian Deminers Association, Nazar*'s family received financial assistance to continue his rehabilitation. Today, nerve sensation is slowly returning. "It's always great to see the first results," he says, "because it reminds me that all the effort is worth it."
Stories like Nazar*'s are why Save the Children works with the Paediatric Blast Injuries Partnership - improving emergency care, rehabilitation, and long-term recovery for children injured in conflict.
How You Can Help Children in Ukraine
Children in Ukraine didn't choose this war - but together, we can choose to stand with them. A monthly gift means our teams can plan long-term support, from ongoing mental health programmes to education and protection services, staying close to children not just in moments of crisis but throughout their recovery.
Your support could provide warmth, safety, and hope to children facing unimaginable hardship. Together, we can make a difference.
Become a monthly donor
Your generous donation could help children and families affected by the war in Ukraine, as well as other disasters across the world. It can also help create lasting change through longer term programmes to alleviate poverty and the chronic impact of climate change.
How your donations are helping children
Between February 2022 and February 2025, together with local partners, we helped more than 4.6 million people - including more than 1.8 million children - in Ukraine and the region.
This is only possible because of people like you: since Thursday 24 February 2022, you raised an astonishing £446.3 million through the DEC Ukraine Appeal.
Here's what we've done with some of that money so far...
In Ukraine
Between February 2022 and February 2025, through your incredible support and our 25 partners, we were able to:
- support over 300,000 children with education
- provide over 470,000 people with cash assistance
- provide 2.6 million people with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) support
- distribute temporary shelter and essential items to 415,000 people
- provide mental health and child protection support to over 349,000 people
For more information on our impact in Ukraine, read our three-year report.
Meet our child psychologists
Become a monthly donor
By giving monthly you can be ready to reach children before disaster strikes.
Our work with families who've fled Ukraine
Many families fled to neighbouring countries expecting to return, but worsening conditions in Ukraine have forced them to stay. Since 2022, we've supported 584,600 people across Romania, Lithuania and Poland, including more than 21,300 people in 2025 alone.
In Poland
Around 987,000 refugees from Ukraine have fled to Poland.
In Poland, we have been supporting children and families who were forced to flee their homes in Ukraine.
How your donations are helping children
In Poland, having supported more than 183,000 Ukrainians since 2022, we made the decision to transition all programmes to local leadership and close our Warsaw office at the end of 2025 - working with 18 partners to ensure refugee children remained integrated into Polish care and education services. This is what sustainable, locally-led humanitarian response looks like in practice.
See the camps in full swing
In Romania
Romania has been a key transit country for families fleeing conflict in Ukraine. By the end of December 2024, more than 6.8 million people had crossed into Romania since February 2022. Around 210,000 refugees from Ukraine have temporary protection or refugee status in Romania (as of April 2026).
How your donations are helping children
In Romania, we've supported more than 369,200 people through counselling hubs, border crossing points and transit centres - offering emotional care, practical guidance and safe spaces for children and families. In 2025, we helped over 8,900 people, including providing cash to 2,310 people and mental health support to over 2,000 children.
Inside our child friendly spaces
Become a monthly donor
By becoming a monthly donor, you can ensure that our teams reach children all over the world, all year round.
Guaranteed income means we can plan long term solutions for children - like providing ongoing mental health support, or supporting them through our education work.
It also means you will remain close to the work we do and your unique impact through regular updates from us!
Becoming a monthly donor is the best gift you can give a child.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does the conflict affect children's education?
Over 4,200 schools and other education facilities in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed since 2022, and one in three children still cannot attend school in person full time. This school year, air raid alarms have sounded on 66% of school days, up from 37% a year earlier. In Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions, alarms have taken up around a quarter of lesson time.
Beyond physical access, interrupted sleep from overnight sirens makes it harder for children to concentrate and learn, compounding the impact on their development.
What is the mental health impact on children?
Our 2024 research found that more than four in 10 children in Ukraine were experiencing psychosocial distress. Some have developed speech defects, involuntary twitching and sleep disorders. Around 50% of air raid alerts occur at night, chronically disrupting children's sleep and sense of safety.
Is it safe for Save the Children to operate in Ukraine?
We've worked in Ukraine since 2014 and have extensive experience delivering aid in conflict zones. Our team of 200 staff works with around 25 local partners across the country, including frontline regions. We continuously monitor the security situation and adapt our operations to protect both our staff and the families we serve.
What are the biggest challenges facing families this winter?
Families are facing multiple, overlapping crises: freezing temperatures, power cuts disrupting heating and water supplies, damaged or destroyed homes, and the constant threat of further attacks. Last winter, nearly two million children were left without heat, electricity and water at some point. Many families resorted to desperate measures - heating bricks for warmth, cooking on camp stoves, and sleeping in tents indoors.
This winter, our teams are handing out winter kits to help families stay warm. So far we've distributed 104 kits, with 251 more on the way. We also help families repair roofs, windows and doors so their homes stay warm and safe.
Why are families returning to frontline areas?
New research from Save the Children, published on Thursday 2 April 2026, found that over 1.6 million people have returned to frontline areas of Ukraine, including many families with children. A survey of 172 parents and caregivers found that 74% cited missing their home and community as a key reason for returning - with financial hardship and isolation in displacement often outweighing the physical risks of conflict. Almost 1 in 2 parents (45%) said their children were feeling unhappy, stressed, or lonely away from home. For families of children with disabilities, the situation is often even harder: access to specialist rehabilitation services is severely limited outside frontline regions, forcing some families to return despite the ongoing danger.
How do children in Ukraine stay safe during air raids?
When the air raid alert sounds, families go to a bomb shelter, a basement or a metro station. If they can't reach one, people in Ukraine follow the "two-wall rule": they shelter in a room with at least two walls between them and the outside. The first wall takes the main impact of a blast, and the second protects them from debris and broken glass. Viktor's* family in Dnipro shelter in his grandfather's room in the middle of the house. "As soon as the air raid alert starts, they all go there," says his mum, Iryna*. In schools, lessons often move to underground shelters, and our partners teach children how to stay safe from landmines and unexploded objects.
*Names changed to protect identities.
