The World Health Organization has recorded 103 attacks on health facilities or ambulances since the start of the conflict, the director announced on Thursday.
The World Health Organization on Thursday confirmed more than 100 attacks on health services in Ukraine and requested humanitarian access to the besieged city of Mariupol by Russian forces.
“To date, the WHO has verified 103 attacks on health services, with 73 people killed and 51 injured, including health workers and patients,” WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during the interview. of a press conference, describing the results as “gloomy”.
“A violation of international humanitarian law”
Of the confirmed attacks, 89 hit health facilities and most others transport services, including ambulances.
“We are outraged by the continued attacks on health services,” continued the WHO chief, adding that they constituted “a violation of international humanitarian law”.
“The priority is Mariupol”
Speaking at an earlier press conference in Lviv, western Ukraine, the director of the European branch of the WHO, Hans Kluge, lamented that some affected areas remained out of reach of the health aid.
“I think the priority, clearly, is Mariupol,” he said. The Russian military and its separatist allies have been besieging the city for weeks and are facing fierce Ukrainian resistance.
The humanitarian situation there is catastrophic, according to both sides, and the city largely in ruins, with great concern about the fate of the civilians of this city of more than 400,000 inhabitants before the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Russia of blocking humanitarian access to Mariupol to hide the “thousands” of victims.
So far, the WHO “has been able to deliver 185 tons of medical equipment to the most affected areas of the country, reaching half a million people”, according to Hans Kluge.
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