Ukraine Conflict Puts Health of 430,000 Children at Risk - UNICEF
Almost half a million Ukrainian children face serious risks to their health due to ongoing conflict, UNICEF said in a statement on Monday
"430,000 children live with psychological wounds and need ongoing support to address the emotional trauma of growing up in a prolonged conflict," UNICEF said.
The fund's regional director Afshan Khan urged all parties to the conflict to end fighting and find a political solution.
"It is unconscionable that children in eastern Ukraine continue to go to schools with bullet holes and bomb shelters and live in neighborhoods that are intermittently shelled and littered with landmines," she said.
UNICEF noted that at least 172 children, the youngest a 1-year-old girl, have been wounded or killed due to mines or other explosive remnants of war. In addition, at least 36 attacks on schools were reported this year alone, including one facility that was damaged 15 times, it added.
So far in 2019 only 37 percent of UNICEF's emergency appeal to support children and their families in eastern Ukraine has been funded, the release noted.