Ukraine war: WHO reports rise of attacks on hospitals and health facilities | DW News

Since invading Ukraine, Russian armed forces have hit nearly 100 medical facilities. Attacks on health care infrastructure are classified as war crimes, but perpetrators have historically evaded justice.

Attacks on medical facilities have long been considered war crimes. International humanitarian law explicitly proscribes attacks on hospitals, whether targeted or indiscriminate.

In Ukraine, such attacks have not only disrupted the continuity of health care, which provides critical services for the civilian population: They have also killed dozens of medical staff and patients, according to anonymized data published by the World Health Organization (WHO). DW's investigative unit has examined 21 attacks on medical facilities in detail, including several underreported cases, such as the attack on the Volnovakha Central District Hospital in the early days of the conflict. That figure is only a fraction of the 91 attacks on health care infrastructure so far confirmed by the WHO, which represents an average of two attacks on hospitals, ambulances or medical supply depots per day. The Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC), an independent think tank, provided DW with access to undisclosed material, including a log of more than 100 attacks on medical facilities (at the time of publication). According to the UHC, the figures are slightly higher than the WHO's because the center has a nationwide network of on-the-ground sources who can report attacks as they happen.

Germany's foreign intelligence agency, the BND, has intercepted radio transmissions from Russian military officers in which the killing of civilians in Bucha, was discussed. Germany's weekly news magazine Der Spiegel revealed the intercepts suggest that these were neither random acts nor the actions of individual soldiers who got out of hand. According to Der Spiegel, the BND showed the killings were discussed as if it was normal procedure, possibly to fear and terror among the civilian population. It seems the Russian paramilitary group, Wagner, was also involved in the killings. Ukrainian forces found bodies of civilians that were apparently executed and mass graves in Bucha after retaking the city over the weekend.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Russia is trying to hide evidence of war crimes committed in Ukraine. "We have information that the Russian troops have changed tactics and are trying to remove the dead people, the dead Ukrainians, from the streets and cellars of territory they occupied," Zelenskyy said. "This is only an attempt to hide the evidence and nothing more," he added. Zelenskyy said that Russian leadership was "afraid that the global anger over over what was seen in Bucha would be repeated after what was seen in other cities." He added that thousands of people were missing.

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