WHO Confirms 18 Attacks on Health Facilities in Ukraine

There have been nearly 20 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine in recent days, the World Health Organization confirmed on Wednesday.

Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said during a meeting of WHO officials that 18 attacks on health facilities, personnel, and ambulances had been “verified.” The attacks left 10 people dead and 16 people injured.

“These attacks deprive whole communities of healthcare,” Ghebreyesus said during the conference, adding that as a result of the violence and attacks, “more than 2 million people” had left Ukraine.

The WHO is working with countries near Ukraine to provide refugees, the majority of whom are women and children, with healthcare, the organization said. Some of officials’ primary health challenges are hypothermia and frostbite, respiratory diseases, lack of treatment for cardiovascular disease and cancer, and mental health problems.

WHO OFFICIAL: EUROPE COULD SEE ‘CEASEFIRE’ WITH COVID-19 IN COMING MONTHS

The director-general also praised efforts from WHO personnel who worked to provide refugees with “mental health and psycho-social” aid.

To date, the WHO has delivered 81 metric tons of supplies to Ukraine and is working to build a “pipeline of supplies for health facilities throughout Ukraine,” Ghebreyesus confirmed.

“Yesterday, we delivered five metric tons of medical supplies to Kyiv to support surgical care for 150 trauma patients,” Ghebreyesus said.

Other medical supplies have been deployed in an effort to care for 45,000 patients with a wide variety of other medical conditions, the director-general added when calling for peace in the region.

“The only real solution to this situation is peace,” Ghebreyesus said. “WHO continues to call on the Russian Federation to commit to a peaceful resolution to this crisis.”

Earlier Wednesday, Russia escalated its attack when a Russian airstrike hit a maternity and children’s hospital in the city of Mariupol. Ukrainian authorities said an unknown number of children and adults were left under the remains of the building.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE WASHINGTON EXAMINER

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba claimed Russian armed forces had taken 400,000 people “hostage” in the city and that evacuations were not possible due to the continued shelling, but that has not been verified.