According to the United Nations, nearly two million children need urgent humanitarian aid in Ukraine and seven out of ten do not have guaranteed access to essential services. There are 3.7 million people who remain displaced within the country and almost 7 million have been forced to seek refuge outside its borders, especially in Europe or neighboring countries, and mostly women with dependent minors.
What was expected to be a war of days has turned into a 4-year conflict with little sign of ending
On the ground, Álvaro Cuadrado (founder of the NGO Hambrecero.es) describes in Onda Cero what has been found in Ukraine 4 years later. “We arrived here on the sixth day of the Russian invasion and 4 years later we are still here. What we thought was going to be two weeks has become the most ambitious humanitarian mission in the history of Hambrecero.es, with 125 shipments valued at 11 million euros and we have served hundreds of thousands of families. The war in Ukraine is not over, the need remains, I hope we are no longer needed,” he says.
Álvaro Cuadrado, founder of Hambrecero.es: “I wish we weren’t necessary”
“When we entered for the first time we found a country that was preparing for war, and now we find a country that breathes war from every pore,” adds Álvaro Cuadrado.
The NGO Children’s Villages warns that minors – not only continue to be exposed to daily violence – but also face deep emotional exhaustion, continued stress and school interruptions that undermine their education. Liubov Chornomaz, a member of the organization in Ukraine that has already supported more than 600,000 people, warns that the prolongation of this war will cause profound consequences for children’s development.
Many Ukrainians, according to MSF, arrive at hospitals with frozen limbs
To this situation we must add the cold – especially harsh this winter – and the systematic attacks by Putin’s troops against their Ukrainian energy infrastructure, leaving millions of people without water, electricity or heating when thermometers have reached 20 degrees below zero in recent weeks.
More and more Ukrainians are arriving at hospitals with symptoms of hypothermia or some of their limbs frozen. The coordinator of Doctors Without Borders in Ukraine, Enrique García Ortiz, confesses that in these conditions it is very difficult to work, taking into account that electricity is crucial for hospitals and health centers to function. MSF also reports that, from February 24, 2022 until today, more than one medical structure per day has been damaged or destroyed in Ukraine due to Russian bombing (about 2,000 buildings in total).
Caritas focuses on the most vulnerable
From Caritas, its president in Ukraine regrets that we are facing a conflict that is “entrenched”, that remains of “high intensity” and that takes on new forms of violence. At this time, Tetiana Stawnichy recognizes that citizens’ greatest fear is being hit by a drone.
In kyiv, Caritas has had to strengthen its home care service to care for vulnerable people who have lost power at home. And they denounce that on the war front, an increasingly large area, there are very difficult situations for children: an area where minors have been without access to education for 4 years, not even online.
The cost in lives in Ukraine is enormous, so soldiers freeze their sperm before leaving for the battlefront
Ukraine is becoming a nation of widows and orphans as it faces a true demographic catastrophe, which is why more and more women are deciding to freeze their husbands’ sperm before they go to fight at the front.
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Russia has suffered 1.2 million casualties since the beginning of the war, including between 275,000 and 325,000 dead, more losses than any other great power since World War II, while the Ukrainians would have suffered between 500,000 and 600,000 casualties. It is estimated that the combined number of casualties could reach two million in 2026.
