More than €400 million will be needed over the next three months to help civilians, especially children, in Ukraine, the UN’s Children’s Fund UNICEF estimates while its teams continue to face logistical problems delivering aid to the field.
According to UNICEF’s Deputy Regional Director for Europe and Central Asia, Philippe Cori, more than half of the one million Ukrainian refugees are children.
Cori warned at the press conference in Paris on Thursday that Ukraine’s situation for 7.5 million children is getting worse by the minute.
UNICEF Executive Director Catherine Russell has said that at least 13 children have been killed, while many have been injured, since the Russian invasion started on 24 February, but they fear that number will rise.
UNICEF, whose teams have been working in Ukraine for over eight years, has launched a call for donations to provide effective humanitarian aid, and the funds will mainly be used for medicines, medical equipment, and hygiene kits.
As supplies dwindle and difficulties in delivering the UN World Health Organization’s medical supplies to Ukrainian hospitals intensify, the WHO has issued an urgent call for medical oxygen and other critical medical supplies.
According to Cori, who praised the local authorities for their immense courage despite the danger, UNICEF teams on the ground are working closely with local municipalities which are an effective relay.
Civilians are given hygiene kits, water, food, and medicine in over 30 reception facilities, known as “blue points”, set up in Ukraine and on the borders of neighboring countries, including Poland, Romania, Moldova, and the Czech Republic,
There are also thirteen mobile teams that have been deployed on Ukrainian territory and in border countries. They both also have psychologists on hand to support traumatized children.
More than a million refugees have fled to neighboring countries following seven days of the war in Ukraine.
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