Hospital Strike in Kryvyi Rih Injures Workers as WHO Records 3,300 Attacks on Ukraine Health Care

A Russian airstrike damaged a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on October 6, local officials and media reported. Several people were injured, including at least two hospital workers. The attack also damaged residential and administrative buildings and an art school in the city center. The strike is the latest in a long series of Russian attacks on Ukraine that harm health care workers and facilities and threaten the right to health. In some cases, these attacks may amount to war crimes. The World Health Organization (WHO) has recorded more than 3,300 attacks affecting health care since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022. These attacks have killed 248 health workers and injured 1,095 others. In September, a Russian strike damaged a maternity hospital in Kyiv and killed one person in its car park. That attack was part of a wave of drone and missile strikes across Ukraine that day, which killed eight people — most in Kharkiv, and two in Kyiv and the Kyiv region, according to Ukrainian authorities. The effects of such attacks reach beyond immediate casualties. A survey of civilians by Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) found that the share of respondents able to access health care "always" or "most of the time" fell from 77 percent to 35 percent since the invasion, partly because of these attacks. Those who can access care "rarely" or "never" rose from 7 percent to 35 percent. After years of fighting, the WHO estimates the cost of rebuilding Ukraine's health care sector at more than US$23 billion. International humanitarian law grants special protection to medical facilities, health care personnel and medical transport such as ambulances. Attacks on health care can also violate international human rights law, including the right to health, as well as 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 in Russian-occupied territories. All parties to the conflict should immediately stop all attacks on health care and ensure their actions comply with international law.