Source: Save the Children
Children in Ukraine have endured an average of about 4,000 hours of air raid alarms – equivalent to over 5.5 months of constant alerts – since the start of full-scale war in February 2022, with constant fear of attacks taking a severe toll on their mental health, Save the Children said. [1]
Parents and Save the Children staff report that children are anxious and worried, while some children have developed gastrointestinal disorders due to stress. The last quarter of 2025 saw an uptick in the duration of alarms, coinciding with an intensification of the conflict in recent months, further compounding psychological pressure on children and families already living under prolonged strain.
Children in the frontline areas and in the Kyiv region have been hardest hit in the past four years, facing 7,000 hours of air raid alerts – equivalent to around 9.5 months, according to analysis of official alert data on sirens.[2] This means some children have spent nearly a full year of their lives under the sound of sirens.
Air raid alerts, warning civilians of a missile strike or shelling threats, can sound multiple times a day. When a siren sounds, children and families must decide whether to take cover in basements, cellars or subway stations with little or no access to water, electricity or heating. Many families, however, exhausted by years of alerts, are increasingly choosing the less safe option of sheltering in hallways or bathrooms away from the building’s exterior, illustrating the deep fatigue civilians face after years of constant danger.
Sirens, which can last from a few minutes to several hours or longer, frequently keep children home from school, and an estimated 50% of alerts [3] happen in late evening or at night, robbing many children of consistent sleep and a sense of safety.
Anastasiia, 8-, fled with her family from their hometown in Zaporizhzhia region to Zaporizhzhia city when full-scale war broke out. Like many children in frontline areas, Anastasiia- has learned to live with nights regularly interrupted by explosions from drones and missile attacks. When the air raid alert sounds at night, the family goes to the corridor where the children sleep on mattresses until it becomes quiet again – a routine that has become disturbingly normal for many families.
“It is constant emotional strain. Adults feel it, but children feel it more deeply. The nervous system is exhausted,” said Anastasiia’s mother, Veronika-. “When children hear an explosion, they worry, they get nervous.”
Save the Children, together with local partner organisation Posmishka UA, operates a Child Friendly Space where children can take part in educational activities, play and receive psychosocial support, offering rare moments of stability, learning and emotional relief.
Yana-, who works at the Child Friendly Space, said there are children there who have developed gastrointestinal disorders and children who are frequently ill.
“All this, of course, is psychosomatic, due to the fact that the child is constantly in this nervous state and their body is trying to protect them as best as it can,” she said.
Four years of war in Ukraine has made living in this state of constant distress a “new norm” for many children. Research by Save the Children in 2024 found that over four in 10 children were suffering from psychosocial distress, with some children developing speech defects and uncontrollable twitching, while others have terrible nightmares and even scream in their sleep. [4] A study in 2025 found that four out of five people surveyed experienced high levels of stress, predominantly due to the war [5], underscoring the nationwide mental health crisis affecting both children and adults.
Sonia Khush, Country Director for Save the Children in Ukraine, said:
“Four years of full-scale war in Ukraine have shattered children’s lives and ripped away their childhoods as they’ve been forced from their homes and schools, lost loved ones and lived in fear as air raid alerts, drones and explosions consume the world around them.
“Children in Ukraine, especially those who live near the frontline, are under constant stress because of air raid sirens both day and night. For some children, the only world they have known is one filled with air raid alerts that disrupt their sleep, interrupt their learning, stop their play, and signal constant, life-threatening danger day after day.
“Despite playing no part in the war, children are paying the heaviest price, including damage to their psychological wellbeing. All parties to the conflict must immediately cease attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure, including homes, schools and hospitals, and end grave violations against children.
“We also need to ensure support for children’s recovery and mental health to address many of the unseen impacts of war that, if not addressed, can leave wounds that last well into adulthood. Sustained international funding is critical to ensure children affected by the war receive the protection, care and opportunities they need to rebuild their lives, and to prevent a generation from carrying the invisible scars of conflict for life.”
Save the Children has been working in Ukraine since 2014. Since 24 February 2022, the children’s rights agency has dramatically scaled up its operations, supporting children and their families with access to essential supplies and services. Save the Children has reached over 4.7 million people – including around 1.9 million children – in Ukraine in the last four years, delivering lifesaving aid, education, protection and mental health support
Notes
[1] Data on the duration of air raid alerts taken from https://air-alarms.in.ua/en, a source which aggregates alarm alerts, from official sources. Data in this press release includes official alerts only. Since the duration and frequency of alerts differ greatly by area, we used a weighted average taking into account latest populations estimates from the UN to calculate an average alert time since February 2022 across the 23 regions and Kyiv city for which alert data is available from https://air-alarms.in.ua/en,
[2] Calculation is a weighted average based on population for the following regions: Donetsk, Kharkiv, Sumy, Dniprov, Zaporizka, Kherson, Odessa, Chernihiv, Mykolaiv and Kyiv region.
[3] Based on analysis of alerts with a duration that fell between 9pm and 7am from https://air-alarms.in.ua/en, provided to Save the Children on 29 January 2026.
[5] 2025 study on mental health by the All-Ukrainian mental health program “How are you?”. Available here (in Ukrainian) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t0wPXZTPEJQUSi5ftDcNf8oQUX-bIQdl/view. 78% of people suffering from stress directly linked this to the war.
