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Ukraine war creating a child refugee almost every second: UNICEF
Almost one child per second in Ukraine is becoming a refugee of the war, UN humanitarians said on Tuesday, as the total number of people who have now fled the country since the Russian invasion began, passed three million.
“We have now reached three million mark in terms of movements of people out of Ukraine to neighbouring countries. And among these people there are some 157,000 third-country nationals,” said Paul Dillon, spokesperson for the International Organization for Migration (IOM), speaking in Geneva.
Some 1.5 million children have now joined the exodus from Ukraine, at a rate of just under one per second, since the Russian invasion on 24 February.
“Every day, over the past 20 days, in Ukraine more than 70,000 children have become refugees. Okay, that’s every minute, 55 children fleeing the country,” said James Elder, spokesperson for the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
Highlighting that nine in 10 of those fleeing unrelenting violence in Ukraine are women and children, Mr. Elder warned that youngsters are prey to traffickers, as they arrive in unfamiliar new surroundings.
“To give a sense of the border that I used to visit - the main border, Medyka, Poland to Ukraine - it is scores of people standing around buses and minivans calling out names of capital cities - or at least it was a week ago - people getting onto those,” he said. “The vast, vast majority of course are people with wonderful intentions and great generosity, but there is no doubt given what we understand of trafficking in Europe, that that remains a very, very grave issue.”
The development follows a warning from the UN Secretary-General, who on Monday said that Russia’s military offensive against civilians was “reaching terrifying proportions”.
In Mariupol, humanitarians warned that the situation in the port city has deteriorated further, after further heavy Russian bombardment.
Hundreds of thousands of people are being “suffocated” by a lack of supplies and are unable to flee the city, besieged by Russian forces.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) on Tuesday described the situation as “dire and desperate”.
“The bottom line here is that hundreds of thousands of people remain without aid today,” said spokesperson Ewan Watson. “They are unable to leave the city today and they are essentially being suffocated in this city right now with no aid.”
Mr. Watson also confirmed that “some vehicles …were able to leave the city yesterday. The ICRC was not involved in that evacuation of people. But what I would say is that is really a drop in the ocean.”
Amid reports that families are being forced to gather water from streams and that fights have broken out over food, Mr. Watson urged the Ukrainian and Russian authorities to find a solution so that aid can reach the city’s people.
The ICRC spokesperson also announced that the Organization intended to evacuate people from the besieged northeastern city of Sumy on Tuesday, using 30 buses.
Across the country, UN humanitarians are delivering lifesaving aid where they have access. But UNICEF’s Mr. Elder reported “indiscriminate attacks time and again on critical infrastructure, particularly water has been targeted. Anecdotally from those colleagues there, we know of families who are undoing all heaters to take water coolant out as a last resort, as something to drink.”
ends
STORY: Ukraine Update – IOM, UNICEF, ICRC
TRT: 2 mins 25s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 15 March 2022 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
SHOTLIST
- Exterior wide shot, flag alley, UN Geneva.
- Medium shot, Press room, UN Geneva, participants, TV cameras, podium.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Paul Dillion, International Organization for Migration (IOM): “We have now reached three million mark in terms of movements of people out of Ukraine to neighbouring countries. And among these people there are some 157,000 third-country nationals.”
- Medium shot, video journalists.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) James Elder, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “When it comes to central supplies we’ve had indiscriminate attacks time and again on critical infrastructure, particularly water has been targeted. Anecdotally from those colleagues there, we know of families who are undoing all heaters to take water coolant out as a last resort, as something to drink.”
- Wide shot, Press room, UN Geneva, participants seated, podium speakers.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Ewan Watson, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): “The bottom line here is that hundreds of thousands of people remain without aid today, they are unable to leave the city today and they are essentially being suffocated in this city right now with no aid.”
- Medium shot, Press room, podium speaker in focus, with participants blurred in foreground.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) Ewan Watson, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC): “There were, as reported, some vehicles that were able to leave the city yesterday. the ICRC was not involved in that evacuation of people. But what I would say is that is really a drop in the ocean.”
- Close-up, Press room, UN Geneva, participants’ faces.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) James Elder, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “Every day, over the past 20 days, in Ukraine more than 70,000 children have become refugees. Okay, that’s every minute 55 children fleeing the country.”
- Close-up: TV camera monitor showing podium speaker.
- SOUNDBITE (ENGLISH) James Elder, UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF): “To give a sense of the border I used to visit the main border, Medyka, Poland to Ukraine, it is scores of people standing around buses and minivans calling out names of capital cities - or at least it was a week ago - people getting onto those; the vast, vast majority of course are people with wonderful intentions and great generosity, but there is no doubt given what we understand of trafficking in Europe, that that remains a very, very grave issue.”
- Medium shot: participants seated and working on laptops.
- Close-up: hands on laptop keyboard and mouse, rings in focus.
- Medium shot, participants working on laptops or checking phone.
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New data showing that rivers were at their lowest level for decades last year provides further evidence that the climate crisis is real and countries must act immediately to protect themselves from the increasing threat to communities and livelihoods, the UN World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Thursday.
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Glaciers disappearing
In 2025, for the fourth consecutive year, every major glaciated region on Earth lost ice mass, leading to short-term hazards including floods and long-term water insecurity, according to WMO.
Responding to a question about whether the changing global water cycle might have contributed to the deadly Nepal-China flooding disaster, Ms. Saulo explained that melting ice and rock was just one factor in the chain of events that ultimately sent a massive and deadly wall of water and debris downstream on 26 August, killing at least 1,367 people.
“You asked if it could happen again? Absolutely; the problem in this region is that there’s 63,700 glaciers at the last count,” she told a Press Conference in Geneva. “Even if you’re looking with remote sensing with satellites at these glaciers, you might see some faults, you might see some slight shifting, that does not mean necessarily catastrophic collapse. So, in order to plan for this, it’s very, very difficult. But the international community is looking very hard at ways in which we can bring people together to solve some of these monitoring issues.”
Data indicates that glaciers shrank between 2023 and 2025 with cumulative losses of 1,400 gigatonnes of water – or about one third of annual fresh water needs.
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Preparing for moving baselines
The report does not attribute every observed change to climate change alone. WMO says pressure on water resources and natural variability also contribute.
Mr. Jenkinson said governments need to prepare for “moving baselines” as historical patterns become less reliable.
“The situation 30 years ago is not where we are today,” he said. Countries, he added, need to prepare “for those changes that have really already arrived”.
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