Child safety in frontline communities, civil protection, and water supply resilience: Issues raised at a meeting of the State Commission on Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergencies

Minister for Recovery, Infrastructure and Transport of Ukraine Mykola Kalashnyk held an extraordinary meeting of the State Commission on Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergencies.

Participants discussed child safety in border and frontline regions, the readiness of the civil protection system, and ensuring stable water supply under wartime risks.

One of the key issues was the safety of children continuing in‑person or blended learning in communities near combat zones and the state border. Currently, six regions have been identified with more than 56,000 children studying in 49 such communities.

To strengthen their safety, there is a need to install 840 mobile shelters along routes used for transporting and carrying children. The meeting emphasized the urgent need to procure and install them.

“Child safety in frontline and border communities is an absolute priority. If children continue in‑person or blended learning, we must ensure they can quickly reach a shelter not only at school but also during transportation. Therefore, decisions on mobile shelters must be implemented as quickly as possible,” stressed Mykola Kalashnyk.

The readiness of the civil protection system to respond to emergencies was also reviewed. Regions were instructed to update information on available forces and resources and assess their actual capacity to operate under different scenarios.

“We need a real picture of readiness on the ground, not readiness on paper. Each region must clearly understand what resources it has, how quickly they can be mobilized, and what additional decisions are needed,” noted the Minister.

Another issue was the resilience of water supply systems. Given constant attacks on critical infrastructure, it is necessary to ensure uninterrupted operation of systems even in case of damage or prolonged power outages.

Monitoring of water supply systems will be strengthened, and the readiness of backup sources will be checked. Their number will also be increased, particularly to cover all relevant critical infrastructure facilities.

As a result of the meeting, specific next steps, responsible parties, and deadlines were defined for each issue. The implementation of the adopted decisions will remain under the control of the State Commission on Technogenic and Environmental Safety and Emergencies until all matters are fully resolved.