Highlights
As part of the response to the polio outbreak in Ukraine, the Ministry of Health (MoH) completed the first round of polio vaccinations targeting children aged 2 months to 6 years with a coverage of 64.7 per cent of the target population. In non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, the de facto authorities organised parallel vaccination campaigns and reported 95.7 and 92 per cent coverage of the target population respectively.
UNICEF continues its work with local government authorities in Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia to supply and rehabilitate 12 education facilities in areas with large numbers and/or high proportion of internally displaced people (IDPs) to create an additional 1,000 kindergarten seats.
UNICEF supported water trucking for approximatively 10,000 people and provided hygiene kits to approximately 3,800 people on both sides of the contact line.
UNICEF and its partners provided psychosocial support to 4,500 children through a network of 16 community protection centres (CPCs) in Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv and government-controlled areas of Luhansk and Donetsk regions and inaugurated game libraries in 15 schools in government-controlled areas of Luhansk region, offering sports and recreational activities for children aged 6 to 17.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
After nearly two months of relative calm, the OSCE is reporting an increased number of ceasefire violations involving mortar and artillery in several areas along the contact line, primarily in Donetsk region. From 1 to 30 November, 35 civilian casualties were recorded in eastern Ukraine, of which 8 civilians were killed, while 27 were injured - including four boys aged 11, 13, 14 and 15 who were all wounded in a single incident when accidentally detonating a grenade. All but three deaths and four injuries were caused by explosive remnants of war (ERWs) and improvised explosive devices (IEDs), highlighting once again the need for Mine Risk Education activities.
Delivery of assistance to non-government- controlled areas of Luhansk region resumed after the operations of UN agencies were allowed by the de-facto authorities on 23 October. Priority was given to the winterisation supplies, food and medicine. UN partners delivered over 800 metric tons of aid in four convoys on 7, 12, 20 and 27 November. With plummeting temperatures, this support will particularly benefit children who are among the most vulnerable.
Despite this progress, restrictions on the access of humanitarian agencies to non-government-controlled areas continue to prevent scaling up the provision of assistance to children and their families. The access is limited to UN agencies in non-government-controlled areas of Luhansk region, while in the non-government-controlled areas of Donetsk region the UN agencies are still disallowed to continue with their operations - only two international organisations are at present authorized to carry out humanitarian activities.
As weather conditions deteriorate with fast approaching winter, there are increasing concerns for civilians crossing to and from non-government-controlled areas continuously facing queues of up to eight hours at the available check- points. The Government reportedly installed heated tents at the Gnutove, Novotroitske and Zaitseve crossing points but not at Marinka where up to 350 people occasionally spend the night waiting to cross. Such facilities are not available on the non-government-controlled sides of the crossing points. To support civilians waiting in queues, UNICEF added two additional bio-toilets to the government-controlled side of the Novotroitske crossing point and has entered in partnership with Acceptance International to provide similar sanitation facilities at other crossing points in Donetsk region. In the non-government-controlled-areas of Donetsk region, the water supply company and railway emergency teams removed debris of destroyed bridges from the Seversky Donetsk-Donbass channel. Diver teams finalised the cleaning of the channel bed. Unobstructed water flow is critical to preventing the freezing of the channel and avoiding the disruption of services to nearly 3 million people on both sides of the contact line. These services extend well beyond access to piped water as the water supply is connected to electricity generation from thermal power stations, sewer systems, and centralized heating in many cities in the region.
Following the detonation of the nearby Svatove military depot, in the government-controlled areas of Luhansk region on 29 October, School #8 sustained heavy damages and was subsequently closed. The children have been temporarily reassigned to the two nearby schools. In cooperation with local authorities, UNICEF completed the full assessment of the damages and initiated a tender for the rehabilitation of the premises. In addition, over 400 hygiene kits were distributed to those most in need.