More than 1,000 attacks on Ukraine healthcare systems, says WHO
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A March 2023 photo showing the aftermath of a Russian missile strike on the paediatric department of a hospital in Ukraine's Kharkiv region.
PHOTO: AFP
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COPENHAGEN - Over 1,000 attacks on healthcare systems in Ukraine have been recorded since the start of the Russian invasion,
The attacks have impacted health providers, supplies, facilities and transport, including ambulances, said the WHO’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,” it said.
Mr Jarno Habicht, the agency’s representative in Ukraine, said: “Attacks on healthcare are a violation of international humanitarian law. They deprive people of the care they need and have wide-ranging, long-term consequences.”
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 agency said.
It noted that while primary healthcare remains widely available in war-affected regions, health costs have been increasing in the past half a year, with surveys indicating that nearly a third of the population have difficulty affording certain health services. AFP
