WHO chief says warehouse hit in Ukraine

A World Health Organization (WHO) warehouse stocking medical supplies in the Ukrainian city of Dnipro has been destroyed, the WHO chief said Sunday.

“Last Friday, the WHO humanitarian warehouse in Dnipro, Ukraine, was struck and destroyed. At this time, no casualties have been reported,” the UN health agency’s director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on X.

He said that a WHO staff member and drivers had been at the site earlier in the day, and “the team had succeeded in evacuating 130 of approximately 300 pallets and left the area before the attack”.

He said the warehouse “held humanitarian medical supplies intended for frontline health facilities — primarily WHO emergency health supplies”.

The WHO records attacks on healthcare around the world but, under its rules, does not attribute blame for them.

It has recorded 3,148 attacks on healthcare in Ukraine since the February 24, 2022 Russian invasion, with the vast majority involving violence with heavy weapons.

Of those, 2,567 attacks impacted facilities, 71 impacted warehouses and 645 impacted supplies.

The totality of the attacks have resulted in 240 deaths and 1,055 injuries.

“I cannot say loudly enough: attacks on health care MUST STOP. Otherwise, people are deprived of lifesaving healthcare,” said Tedros.

“Even wars have rules. One of those is that health must be protected!”

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Last month Doctors Without Borders (MSF) condemned what it called Russia’s “deliberate strategy to destroy the healthcare system” in Ukraine, documenting a consistent pattern of attacks throughout the war.

Russia has launched “relentless attacks on healthcare facilities and medical staff in Ukraine”, the medical humanitarian organisation said.

These “appear to constitute a deliberate strategy to destroy the healthcare system and collectively punish the population — rather than being an incidental consequence of Russia’s invasion”, said MSF.

More than four years after the start of Russia’s full-scale offensive against Ukraine, the two warring countries are ramping up long-range strikes, causing a growing number of civilian casualties.