More than 1,000 attacks on Ukraine health care system: WHO
Published May 31, 2023 12:13 am
COPENHAGEN Denmark - More than 1,000 attacks on health care systems in Ukraine have been recorded since the start of the Russian invasion, more than in any other humanitarian emergency, the WHO said Tuesday.
The attacks have impacted health providers, supplies, facilities and transport, including ambulances, said the World Health Organization's European region office.
"The 1,004 WHO-verified attacks over the past 15 months of full-scale war have claimed at least 101 lives, including both health workers and patients, and injured many more," the WHO said.
"Attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law. They deprive people of the care they need and have wide-ranging, long-term consequences," said the WHO representative in Ukraine Jarno Habicht.
Last week, a resolution adopted at the WHO's annual decision-making assembly in Geneva demanded that Moscow immediately cease all attacks on hospitals in Ukraine.
In some regions, primarily in eastern Ukraine, health services are only partially operational due to structural damage, the WHO said.
The WHO noted that while primary healthcare remains widely available in war-affected regions, health costs have been increasing in the past half-year, with surveys indicating that nearly a third of the population have difficulty affording certain health services.