Ukrainian hospitals attacked as health system ‘engulfed’ by Russia conflict: WHO

Ukraine’s health system is becoming “engulfed” in Russia’s attack on Ukraine, the World Health Organization is warning, with 18 verified attacks on health-care facilities, workers and ambulances to date.

Those attacks resulted in 10 deaths and 16 injuries, WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on Wednesday.

Russia continues its relentless bombardment of Ukraine, racking up casualties on both sides of the conflict.

There are approximately 1,000 health facilities of different sizes that are within 10 kilometres of the frontline, said Dr. Michael Ryan, the executive director of the WHO’s health emergencies programme said.

“The health system is becoming engulfed in this conflict,” Ryan said.

“It is the violence and it is the conflict that is driving this health crisis — and this health crisis will not stop. It will only get worse unless we have a ceasefire, unless we have peace…this is putting bandages on mortal wounds right now.”

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Ukraine’s health-care system is facing a number of challenges as a direct result of the conflict, Ryan said.

While the WHO said Wednesday that it has sent 81 metric tonnes of supplies to Ukraine, Ryan warned that if hospitals can’t turn the lights on, using those supplies becomes a challenge.

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“Sending supplies to hospitals is great, but those hospitals need power. They need clean water. They need engineers to be able to help. They need fuel … for generators,” Ryan explained.

“All of this infrastructure and engineering support is needed to keep your average hospital going in a normal situation. In the middle of a shooting war, it’s almost impossible”

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There are a number of health issues that are worsening in the region, beyond the casualties resulting directly from the war itself. More than two million people have left Ukraine, according to Tedros, and are receiving health care in neighbouring countries.

“Some of the main health challenges we see are hypothermia and frostbite, respiratory disease, lack of treatment for cardiovascular disease and cancer, and mental health issues,” Tedros said.

WHO personnel have been deployed to these neighbouring countries to provide mental health and psychosocial support, too, he said.

Meanwhile, questions remain about the implications of the organization’s confirmation that attacks on hospitals, ambulances and other health-care facilities in Ukraine have increased rapidly in recent days.

According to the International Criminal Court’s Rome Statute, it is a war crime to attack both hospitals and “places where the sick and wounded are collected,” provided they “are not military objectives.”

Ryan refused to elaborate on whether Russia’s attack on health-care facilities is a war crime, but confirmed that the WHO is “always ready to cooperate with the appropriate and mandated authorities on investigations.”

“We are very careful within the surveillance system to protect sources, to do deep verification and not pass information directly on to any party — other than to represent the horror of these attacks, and report them widely,” Ryan explained.

As Ryan spoke on Wednesday, news broke of another horrific alleged attack on a health-care facility. Ukraine accused Russia of bombing a children’s hospital in the besieged port of Mariupol — and during a supposed ceasefire that was intended to facilitate the escape of some of the hundreds of thousands of civilians trapped in the city.

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Russia, which denies targeting civilians, had said it would hold fire to let civilians flee Mariupol and other besieged cities on Wednesday. But the city council said the hospital had been hit more than once.

“The Russian occupying forces have dropped several bombs on the children’s hospital. The destruction is colossal,” it said in an online post, adding that it did not yet know any casualty figures. Reuters said the report could not immediately be verified.

Ryan, meanwhile, told reporters that the WHO is working “at every level” to show “the human impact of this war.”

“This violence is … breaking bodies, it’s breaking minds and it’s breaking souls,” Ryan said.

“(It) must stop.”

— with files from Reuters