The World Health Organisation (WHO) has confirmed that Ukrainian health care institutions have been attacked 64 times since Russia invaded its western neighbour one month ago.
The international health body, in a statement on Thursday, said those attacks, equating to two to three every day, had caused 15 deaths and 37 injuries.
WHO condemned the attacks in the strongest terms, saying, “attacks on health care are a violation of international humanitarian law, but a disturbingly common tactic of war.”
“They destroy critical infrastructure but worse, they destroy hope,” said Jarno Habicht, the WHO’s representative in Ukraine.
After one month of war in Ukraine, the Copenhagen-based WHO Europe Office said that access to health services was severely restricted and the need for treatment of trauma and chronic diseases was great.
“Destroyed health infrastructure and broken medical supply chains pose a serious threat to millions of people,” the statement said.