WHO: More than 100 attacks on healthcare staff and facilities in Ukraine since war started

44-year-old Natalya Vakula recovering in a hospital in Brovary, Kyiv, after she was injured last month in a Russian attack on Chernihiv. The WHO says Ukraine's efforts to deal with the injured is further hampered by direct attacks on medical facilities. Picture: Rodrigo Abd/AP

There have been more than 100 attacks on healthcare staff and facilities in Ukraine since the war started, claiming the lives of 73 people and leaving 51 injured, the World Health Organization has confirmed.

Of the current total of 103 attacks, 89 have impacted health facilities and 13 have impacted transport, including ambulances, it said.

“WHO strongly and unequivocally condemns these attacks,” said WHO director general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus. 

This kind of destruction means that already battered communities will further be deprived of vital health services. 

"We have repeatedly asked for an immediate cessation of hostilities that have resulted in far too many attacks that have killed and injured dozens of civilians and healthcare workers, but our calls for the protection of healthcare have gone unheeded."

A Ukrainian soldier injured in combat against Russian forces undergoing surgery at a military hospital in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on April 2. Picture: Felipe Dana/AP

Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe, who visited the humanitarian hub of Lviv in western Ukraine earlier this week, said: "It’s a truly sad irony that we are recording this milestone of over 100 attacks on health in Ukraine on World Health Day.

“I have been personally struck by the resilience and fortitude of health care providers and indeed of the health system itself in Ukraine.  

"WHO has been working to ensure supply lines remain open to allow lifesaving health and medical supplies to reach cities and towns nationwide, and continued attacks on health make this effort all the more challenging.” 

The milestone of over 100 attacks on health spans barely 42 days since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began. 

First responders and volunteers carrying an injured pregnant woman from a maternity hospital damaged by Russian shelling in Mariupol on March 9. The woman and her baby later died. Picture: Evgeniy Maloletka/AP

The WHO said the impact of the violence is not only immediate — in terms of the numbers of deaths and injuries — but also long-term in the consequences for Ukraine’s healthcare system. 

“Across Ukraine, 1,000 health facilities are in proximity to conflict areas or in changed areas of control,” said Jarno Habicht, WHO representative in Ukraine.

Health workers throughout the country are risking their lives to serve those in need of medical services, and they, and their patients, must never be targeted. 

"Further, when people are prevented from seeking and accessing healthcare, either because the facilities have been destroyed or out of fear that they may become a target, they lose hope. The mental health toll wreaked by the war cannot be underestimated, affecting civilians and the health workforce alike."

Attacks on health workers and facilities are unfortunately seen amid conflicts globally. Since January 1 this year, WHO has verified 160 attacks on healthcare in 11 countries and territories resulting in 97 deaths and 74 injuries.