Since February 2022, there have been 1014 attacks on hospitals, healthcare workers, and other healthcare infrastructure in Ukraine.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, more than 1,000 attacks on healthcare have been recorded.
This is the data provided by a coalition of Ukrainian and international organizations that monitor and document attacks on healthcare - eyeWitness to Atrocities, Insecurity Insight, Media Initiative for Human Rights, Physicians for Human Rights and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC).
Ukraine's healthcare system - healthcare workers, medical facilities, and other healthcare infrastructure - has been under attack about twice a day since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on February 24, 2022.
As a result of these attacks, 148 healthcare workers have been killed and 414 hospitals and outpatient facilities have been damaged or destroyed.
The massive and systematic nature of both intentional and indiscriminate attacks has had a lasting and devastating impact on the healthcare system, civilians, and access to life-saving medical care and medicines.
For example, a hospital in a frontline town in Donetsk Oblast has been under regular shelling since the beginning of the invasion.
The last time this medical facility was shelled was in June 2023.
An employee of the hospital administration told the researchers:
"...The missile was aimed at destroying our surgery. There were no military there. [...] The entire infrastructure in the city was destroyed, there were no schools, no kindergartens. We had a hospital, and it had to be destroyed [by the Russian forces] as well. The maternity hospital was the first to suffer.""When our accounting department and the blood transfusion center caught fire, they targeted that area," said a hospital employee, "and [they] burned down.
The report, published by the organizations in February 2023, documented attacks on Ukraine's healthcare system since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, highlighting the extensive losses from Russian aggression.
Based on an analysis of specific attacks, the report concludes that there are reasonable grounds to believe that attacks on Ukraine's healthcare system constitute war crimes and potentially crimes against humanity.
This dataset uses the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of attacks on health and the definition adopted by the Safeguarding Health in Conflict Coalition.
As of July 14, 2023, the organizations recorded:
- 1014 attacks on healthcare in total
- 414 attacks that damaged or destroyed hospitals
- 79 attacks on ambulances
- 148 medical workers were killed
- 106 medical workers wounded
- 57 attacks on children's hospitals
- 40 attacks on maternity hospitals
"These targeted and indiscriminate attacks on Ukraine's healthcare system demonstrate how Russian forces are using these brutal, illegal tactics to control, coerce and punish civilians," said Christian De Vos, JD, PhD, PHR's director of research and investigations.
"We call on the International Criminal Court, as well as other international and national prosecutorial bodies, to urgently prioritize the investigation of attacks on healthcare facilities as war crimes and crimes against humanity," de Vos said.
"Russia is also obliged to provide reparations, including funding for reconstruction and rehabilitation, for violations of international law, as well as compensate the Ukrainian state and individual Ukrainians for the loss of life and injuries. International actors must hold Russia accountable in this context," said Uliana Poltavets,
, Emergency Response Coordinator at PHR Ukraine.
"For almost a year and a half, we have been witnessing an unprecedented escalation of attacks on healthcare in Ukraine, which has reached more than 1,000 cases since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion," commented Diana Rusnak, analyst at the Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC). This is a planned method of warfare approved by the highest political and military leadership of Russia. The consequences are very serious, as they not only cause direct destruction, but also undermine the ability to provide life-saving medical care. Until there is accountability, these crimes will not stop."
The data on attacks on medical facilities and other healthcare infrastructure in Ukraine demonstrate several destructive trends in the healthcare system in Ukraine.
The destruction of healthcare infrastructure not only violates the laws of war, but also limits the access of community residents to vital medical care.
When healthcare facilities are targeted, patients are afraid to seek medical care, putting themselves at risk of complications.
Women and girls, in particular, may be deprived of gynecological and reproductive care due to the lack of medical services, insecurity and hostilities.
Attacks on healthcare facilities can also deter survivors of sexual and gender-based violence from seeking necessary medical care.
Lack of access to health care, combined with reduced social support and fear of reprisals or stigmatization, can lead to other forms of intersecting violence in the long term, including deprivation of reproductive and bodily autonomy, unwanted pregnancy, forced pregnancy, infertility, mental health harm, and obstacles to accessing preventive care and other necessary reproductive health services.
"I have been analyzing healthcare attacks for many years. These numbers are truly staggering," said Christina Wille, director of Insecurity Insight.
"At this grim milestone, we must reflect on the dire consequences of such attacks in Ukraine and in many other countries and territories around the world, such as Myanmar, Sudan and the occupied Palestinian territory, where healthcare facilities and workers continue to suffer horrific levels of violence. We hope that this will be a turning point for strengthening concerted action to protect healthcare around the world and put an end to these tragic attacks."
"The evidence of attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine demands urgent further investigation by prosecutors and provides strong evidence to bring those responsible for these devastating attacks to justice," said Kerry Bauer, director of EyeWitness to Atrocities.
"Ukraine's healthcare system has been severely affected by Russian attacks," said Lyubov Smachylo, analyst at the Media Initiative for Human Rights. "Medical workers and other personnel are suffering from attacks on hospitals and ambulances. Combat medics are being targeted by the Russian army on the battlefield; many of them are also being held in Russian detention centers as prisoners of war, where they are being beaten and tortured. These actions are a blatant violation of international humanitarian law and occur on a regular basis. It is important that those responsible for these crimes are brought to justice in order to prevent future violations."
Ukrainian medics continue to provide medical care despite regular attacks and shelling.
An employee of the aforementioned hospital in a frontline city in Donetsk region said:
"...When there was the shelling, there was such a panic that we were being 'sausaged' here for three days. And [when] we met with the management... the director asked what we were going to do? Well, work, [we said]."
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and its partners continue to call for an end to the attacks on Ukraine's healthcare system and for the Russian Federation to be held accountable for its violations of international law. PHR also continues to call for the implementation of UN Security Council Resolution 2286, which protects health care in conflict.