A Russian airstrike damaged a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on October 6, according to reports from local officials and media outlets. The attack injured several people, including at least two hospital workers, and also damaged residential and administrative buildings and an art school in the city center.
The strike is the latest in a long string of Russian attacks in Ukraine that impact health care workers and facilities and seriously threaten the right to health. In some cases, these attacks may constitute war crimes.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded more than 3,300 attacks impacting health care since the full scale February 2022 invasion, resulting in the deaths of 248 health workers with 1,095 injured. In September, a Russian strike damaged a maternity hospital in Kyiv and killed one person in its car park. It was one of a series of drone and missile attacks across Ukraine that day that killed eight people, most of them in Kharkiv and two in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, Ukrainian authorities said.
Attacks impacting health care can have devastating effects beyond the immediate casualties. A survey of civilians conducted by Médecins Sans Frontières’ (Doctors Without Borders) showed that, since the invasion, the percentage of respondents who reported being able to access health care “always” or “most of the time” dropped from 77 percent to 35 percent, in part due to these attacks. Those who can “rarely” or “never” access care rose from 7 percent to 35 percent.
After years of hostilities, the WHO estimated the cost of rebuilding Ukraine’s healthcare sector at more than US$23 billion.
International humanitarian law grants special protections for medical facilities, healthcare personnel, and medical transportation units, such as ambulances. Attacks on health care can also violate international human rights law, in particular the right to health, but also the rights to life and security. Russian authorities and state media have alleged that Ukrainian strikes have also damaged medical facilities in Russia's border regions and Russian-occupied territories. All parties to the conflict should immediately cease all attacks on health care and ensure their conduct is in line with international law.
