By Olivia Le Poidevin
GENEVA, Jan 16 (Reuters) – Children across Ukraine risk hypothermia in freezing temperatures as emergency stocks of power generators run low following Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, international aid agencies said on Friday.
The U.N. children’s agency UNICEF said it faced a race against time to help restore water and heating services that have been pounded in missile and drone attacks as the fourth anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine approaches.
“Children and families are in constant survival mode,” UNICEF Country Representative for Ukraine Munir Mammadzade told reporters in Geneva.
Mammadzade said people were trying to stay safe from strikes on high-rise buildings while temperatures sank to around minus 18 degrees Celsius (minus 0.4 Fahrenheit) at night.
Some families are stuffing their windows with soft toys to block out the freezing cold, UNICEF said.
STOCKPILES RUNNING LOW
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he would declare a state of emergency in the energy sector. Energy Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Friday Ukraine had fuel reservesfor more than 20 days.
Kyiv and frontline regions face the harshest conditions, with thousands of homes in the capital as well as in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Odesa and frontline towns left without electricity or heating for days on end.
“Without heat, people are at high risk for hypothermia, frostbite and respiratory illnesses,” said Jaime Wah, Deputy Head of Delegation in Kyiv for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, adding that unpredictable power cuts disrupted the water supply and healthcare provision.
“It’s unbearable to live in apartments with no heating or electricity. Families (in Kyiv) are resorting to consider leaving the city.”
Pre-positioned stockpiles of sleeping kits, generators and repair materials for buildings are running low because of the increasing need and limited funding.
An IFRC funding appeal for Ukraine and impacted countries is only 13% covered for 2026 and 2027, leaving a funding gap of 262 million Swiss francs($326.93 million), it said.
UNICEF said it was providing high-capacity generators to support heating and water supplies to hospitals and schools, but called for more funding.
(Editing by Timothy Heritage)
