A staggering 1762 attacks on health care facilities, workers, and infrastructure have been perpetrated since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, according to new data published today by a group of human rights and humanitarian organizations. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) calls on global actors to hold perpetrators of these crimes to account, as well as to support Ukrainian health workers to do their life-saving work – which requires the U.S. government to unfreeze funding for vital health and humanitarian programs that support the Ukrainian people, including survivors of conflict-related sexual violence and other violations perpetrated by Russian forces.
The 1762 attacks on health care in Ukraine since February 24, 2022 include:
- 910 attacks that have damaged or destroyed hospitals and clinics
- 261 health workers who have been killed
- 94 attacks that affected child health care services
- 71 attacks that affected maternal health care services
- 145 attacks on the hospital utilities or attacks on the energy grid that affected hospitals’ access to utilities
“As we mark three years since the full-scale invasion, Russia’s war of aggression continues unabated and Ukraine’s clinicians are in the crosshairs,” said Uliana Poltavets, PHR Ukraine emergency response coordinator. “As our data shows, Russia has bombarded Ukraine’s health care services through both targeted and indiscriminate attacks. Medics are being disappeared and tortured; children’s hospitals have been bombed; and surgeons work by flashlight due to Russian attacks on the power grid.”
“Impunity for attacks on health care around the globe laid the groundwork for Putin’s assault on Ukrainian hospitals,” said Poltavets. “To advance justice for victims and survivors – as well as to deter would-be assailants in this conflict and beyond – international and domestic prosecutors must pursue accountability for attacks on health care.”
The attacks on health care data can be explored on an interactive map at attacksonhealthcareukraine.org, a joint project started by eyeWitness to Atrocities, Insecurity Insight, Media Initiative for Human Rights, PHR, Ukrainian Healthcare Center and joined by Truth Hounds.
“Ukraine’s health and aid workers have been a lifeline for the country, saving countless lives over the past three years. It is unthinkable that at this time of grave peril, the Trump administration would freeze the vast majority of its health and humanitarian aid to Ukraine,” said Poltavets. “We have already seen the immediate impacts of the aid freeze: Shelters for displaced people have been shuttered. Veterans’ programs ended. HIV medication is running out and distribution is at risk of ending. U.S. support for the besieged Ukrainian energy grid has been halted.”
Russia continues to bombard Ukraine’s power grid, with predictable and dire impacts on Ukrainian health care facilities. As recently as December, 16 hospitals in Kyiv were left without heating after a Russian attack on the city. Russian forces have also reportedly attacked near Ukrainian nuclear energy infrastructure.
These attacks on the energy grid are part of a clear pattern: Russia’s widespread and systematic attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid have harmed health care workers and endangered patients, according to a first-of-its-kind report published by PHR and Truth Hounds in December 2024.
A vast majority – 92 percent – of 2,261 Ukrainian health care workers researchers surveyed reported experiencing power outages at their health care facility due to attacks on energy infrastructure. The report documents how Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure led to interrupted or delayed surgeries, forcing surgeons to operate in darkness illuminated only by flashlights; failures in life support systems; discontinued flow of water to hospitals; diagnostic and treatment equipment becoming unusable; patients experiencing panic attacks and cardiac arrhythmia due to lack of power; impeded maternal care service delivery; and other impacts on health care provision.
Russian authorities have also systematically sought to target Ukraine’s health care system to cement their control over the civilian population in Ukrainian territories under occupation, using a series of coercive measures against clinicians and patients.
“Ukraine’s doctors and nurses have not given up. They have endured power cuts, bomb blasts, and targeted threats. They care for patients no matter what. We should learn from their resolve. Global actors, including the United States, must continue the partnership against Russia’s aggression, not abandon it,” said Poltavets.
Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) is a New York-based advocacy organization that uses science and medicine to prevent mass atrocities and severe human rights violations. Learn more here.