Putin’s War on Healthcare
Since the illegal invasion in Ukraine began, medical facilities and healthcare workers have been attacked on a staggering scale.
Under the Geneva Convention and international humanitarian law, access to healthcare is to be protected. The internationally recognised Red Cross symbol displayed by hospitals and healthcare workers is meant to offer protection. In Ukraine, it is a bullseye.
1147 attacks on Ukrainian healthcare between 24 February 2022 and 4 September 2023- The World Health Organisation [WHO].
Attacking hospitals is one of the six grave violations identified and condemned by the UN Security Council.
In 2017 the World Health Organization launched their Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care [SSA] to collect primary source data of attacks on healthcare in countries around the world. The system ensures verification of incidents, and provides evidence based on a level of certainty.
Attacks on healthcare deprive people of urgently needed care, endanger healthcare providers and weaken health systems. The type of attacks tracked by WHO SSA can vary- ranging from bombings and weaponry attacks, to threats and intimation.
86 attacks on health care workers were documented, with 62 health workers killed and 52 injured between the start of the war and December 2022.- Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Health Care System a joint report by Physicians for Human Rights [PHR], eyeWitness to Atrocities, Insecurity Insight, the Media Initiative for Human Rights and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center.
The report released in February 2023, draws on a range of sources: audiovisual evidence, open-source research, primary source interviews, and public reports from several international fact-finding bodies.
In addition to the PHR joint report findings, the WHO SSA records 104 deaths, 151 injuries, and 78 attacks impacting healthcare personnel since the illegal invasion began on 24 February 2022 and 4 September 2023.
273 attacks impacting medical supplies between February 2022 and June 2023- WHO SSA.
Update: The WHO SSA figures show that between June 2023 and 4 September 2023 there have been a further 29 attacks impacting medical supplies taking the number of attacks to 302 since the war began and the 4 September 2023.
In addition, the WHO SSA states there have been 18 attacks that impacted medical and healthcare warehouses in that time period.
In January 2023 the UK government donated over 70 pallets of bandages, crutches, wheelchairs, and other much needed medical supplies to UK-Med, a frontline medical non-governmental organisation [NGO], for those injured in Russian attacks. The supplies came from the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office’s emergency response stocks and would be used across Ukraine, including in Dnipro, Poltava and Lviv, to boost UK-Med’s ongoing work to establish mobile clinics to reach and treat vulnerable people.
At the time of the donation the UN estimated that almost 18 million people in Ukraine needed humanitarian support. The donation was part of the UK’s commitment to provide medical supplies and basic necessities on the ground, saving lives and protecting vulnerable people.
Within the first two months of the war, the UK had donated 5.29 million items of medical supplies to Ukraine, including:
- nearly 3,000 adult resuscitators
- around 220,000 wound care packs
- over 550,000 sterile needles
- over 50,000 packs of bandages
- 1,600 pieces of equipment for ventilators
- over 75,000 cannulas
- around 380,000 packs of medicines — around 2.8million doses — including antibiotics and painkillers
- 72,000 packs of gloves
- 28,000 FFP3 masks
65 documented attacks on ambulances- PHR joint report
Ambulances from around the world have been donated to Ukraine since the war began, in light of the desperate need for them.
Since 24 February 2022, a total of 56 ambulances have been donated to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine by WHO, the EU and United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
The UK have also donated ambulances. Just a month after the war began, NHS workers drove four donated ambulances the 1,400 miles to Ukraine. Crossing six countries the four ambulances, donated by the North East Ambulance Service, were on the frontlines within hours of arriving in the country. The NEAS ambulance service sent a further two ambulances this year.
In April 2022 the UK government announced around 20 ambulances would be sent to Ukraine. The NHS’s national ambulance service fleet strategy requires the replacement of ambulance vehicles every five years. After this time, vehicles are decommissioned and either kept back for resilience, given to approved charities or sent to auction.
The vehicles sent to Ukraine were ambulances that had reached the five year threshold. All vehicles and medical supplies are checked before being sent to ensure they meet the standards required.
One out of 10 hospitals in Ukraine have been directly damaged by attacks- Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Health Care System, the PHR joint report.
In the PHR joint report, 257 events causing damage to health infrastructure were attributed to ground-launched explosives in 14 regions. As a result, 120 hospitals and clinics were damaged and 25 were destroyed.
Researchers for the report interviewed doctors and other medical staff from hospitals that had been attacked. They described what it was like to be treating patients and operating in these conditions.
“It’s hard to explain, the explosions. It was in your head. It was above your head. It was exploding inside of you. It was hell.”
The PHR joint report found that 89 per cent of all attacks on healthcare infrastructure that they documented were caused by explosive weapons.
