The UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday said that lives of an estimated 700,000 children in Ukraine's conflict-affected regions could be at risk amid dropping temperature if repairs to the heating systems in those areas are not urgently made.

"Damage to pipelines and infrastructure, as well as debris from destroyed bridges due to conflict in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk are hampering the flow of water, and could result in a shutdown of the system, affecting water, heating and electricity supplies," the deputy UN spokesman, Farhan Haq, said at a daily news briefing here, quoting information from the UN agency.

Damaged pipelines in war-torn eastern Ukraine are threatening to cut off water, heating and electrical supplies at a time when temperatures are plunging, thus putting these children at risk.

"UNICEF has called for more access to areas where water infrastructure is damaged, ahead of the winter months," he said.

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