Russian attacks on Ukrainian health workers, hospitals amount to war crimes: report

New data is shining a light on the impacts of Russia’s attacks on Ukrainian health-care facilities and workers – atrocities that human rights advocates say amount to war crimes.

As Ukrainians mark a grim anniversary, one brutal year of war and devastation, new data is shining a light on the particularly gruesome impacts of Russia’s attacks on health-care facilities and workers – atrocities that human rights advocates say amount to war crimes.

More than 700 attacks have targeted hospitals, health facilities and staff since the Feb. 24, 2022, Russian invasion, according to data verified by five organizations working inside Ukraine.

Their report, entitled Destruction and Devastation: One Year of Russia’s Assault on Ukraine’s Health Care System chronicles the stark realities faced by health workers and patients in Ukraine, as health facilities have been hit multiple times by missiles and attacks.

Dozens of doctors and nurses and other health staff bravely providing medical treatment have been killed and injured. Others have been threatened, imprisoned, taken hostage and forced to work under Russian occupation, the report states.

This has left Ukrainians’ access to life-saving medical care almost impossible in some regions, the report says.

The evidence documenting what appear in some cases to be targeted attacks on civilian infrastructure, health facilities and medical personnel shows the Russian military has violated international humanitarian law. These crimes should be prosecuted both domestically and by the International Criminal Court, says Christian De Vos, director of research and investigations with Physicians for Human Rights, one of the groups that compiled and authored the report.

“The attacks on health … they are illegal under the Geneva Conventions,” he said.

In total, there were 707 documented attacks on health facilities, clinics, ambulances and medical personnel in 2022 – a grim tally that amounts to at least two attacks on health every day over the course of the past year, De Vos said.