Ukraine

Trained to sniff out the vapours from explosive devices, the six-year-old German Spitz participates in sessions run by Save the Children’s partner organisation, Ukrainian Deminers Association, in Kharkiv, a frontline area hard hit during four years of full-scale war.

The last quarter of 2025 saw an uptick in the duration of alarms, coinciding with an intensification of the conflict in recent months, further compounding psychological pressure on children and families already living under prolonged strain.

Families in Ukraine are turning to increasingly desperate measures to survive power blackouts as attacks on energy facilities have left them without heating and water in one of Ukraine’s coldest weeks this winter.

Freezing temperatures of up to –20 degrees Celsius (-4F) have forced the closure of many schools across Ukraine so far this year, after a near doubling of attacks on energy infrastructure causes widespread power outages with a state of emergency declared today, Save the Children said.

From safe schools to ending child marriage to cleaning up the oceans, children across the globe used their voices for their rights

Record numbers of attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine in the past two months have forced school closures and also disrupted the remote learning that children have relied upon for nearly four years of war, said Save the Children

The equivalent of about 150 classrooms of children have been killed or injured in Ukraine since the start of full-scale war

Children in frontline areas of Ukraine have lost 25% more days of learning due to the war than the world’s longest COVID-19 school closures, as a lack of bomb shelters means it is still too dangerous to for children to attend class, Save the Children said today.