UNICEF Warns of Stolen Childhoods: One in Three Ukrainian Children Still Displaced as War Follows Them Into a Fifth Year
Four years into the war in Ukraine, childhood itself has become a casualty. More than 2.5 million children, over one-third of the country’s child population, remain displaced, either uprooted within Ukraine or living as refugees beyond its borders, according to UNICEF. For many, displacement is not a single event but a repeating trauma, with one in three adolescents forced to flee multiple times in search of safety that never fully arrives.
From bombed-out cities to temporary shelters and foreign classrooms, the war has followed children wherever they go. Attacks on civilian areas continue to kill and injure young lives, with more than 3,200 children harmed since 2022 and child casualties rising for the third consecutive year.
Schools, hospitals, and basic services, the very systems meant to protect children, lie in ruins. Over 1,700 education facilities have been damaged or destroyed, leaving one in three children without consistent access to in-person learning.
Winter has deepened the crisis. Strikes on energy infrastructure have plunged families into freezing homes without heat, electricity, or water. Babies and young children now face heightened risks of hypothermia and respiratory illness, while nearly 200 medical facilities damaged in 2025 alone struggle to function under constant threat.
Beyond the physical dangers, the psychological toll is devastating. Endless air-raid sirens, isolation, and fear have eroded hope itself, with one in four Ukrainian adolescents saying they no longer see a future in their country.
From a child protection and safeguarding perspective, the message is urgent and unmistakable: displacement is not just a humanitarian issue, it is a prolonged violation of children’s right to safety, stability, and development.
As the war enters its fifth year, protecting Ukraine’s children is no longer optional, it is a legal, moral, and global obligation.
