Highlights
Flare ups of violence in and around Avdiivka and the city of Donetsk continued to affect the centralised water supply, electricity and heating systems, with 1.8 million people, including approximately 252,000 children, on both sides of the ‘contact line’ at risk for days.
Due to the surge in fighting, at least 10 educational facilities were damaged and 17 closed, which is affecting the learning of approximately 5,000 children on both sides of the ‘contact line’.
As a part of the ‘winterization’ response, UNICEF delivered 500 electric heaters, 30 water tanks and 300 sets of warm clothing for conflict affected children in nongovernment-controlled areas (NGCA).
Nearly 16,000 children in 45 educational facilities on both sides of the ‘contact line’ benefited from the receipt of new school furniture, learning materials and educational kits.
Situation Overview & Humanitarian Needs
In February, one child was killed and four children injured, out of 72 conflict-related civilian casualties (11 killed and 61 injured) due the escalation of the conflict in Donetsk and Luhansk Oblasts. 2 The new wave of violence impacted at least 27 educational facilities in government- and non-government-controlled areas (GCAs and NCGAs) of the respective Oblasts, affecting approximately 5,000 children (see Map 1). A total of 10 education facilities were damaged by shelling, 17 others had to close for days until security was restored.
The ongoing fighting continued to pose indirect threat to civilian population depending on centralised water, electricity and heating supply, as the outdated critical civilian infrastructure, including chlorine gas facilities of the “Donetsk Filter Station”, endured more direct hits this month. 3 Per estimates of the major water company in eastern Ukraine, about 1.8 million people in Donetsk Oblast on both sides of the ‘contact line’ were immediately at risk of water shortage due to numerous damages.In Luhansk city, about 150,000 people were disconnected from a water source managed by a water company in GCAs due to its historic debt to a Ukrainian private electricity company.