Attacks on healthcare in the Ukraine war

Editor's Note

As of March 31, there have been 82 attacks on healthcare workers and facilities in Ukraine that have resulted in 72 deaths and 43 injuries, and most attacks involved the use of heavy weapons against healthcare facilities, personnel, patients, and medical supplies, according to this JAMA Viewpoint article, from authors at the O’Neill Institute and Global Health Law, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, and the Center for Public Health and Human Rights, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore.

At Mariupol, a direct Russian airstrike on a hospital complex reportedly injured some 17 healthcare workers and patients, and killed an expectant mother, and Russian forces took 100 patients and healthcare workers and 400 civilians as hostages inside an intensive care hospital. In addition, humanitarian corridors for safe evacuation of patients and delivery of medical supplies have been obstructed or destroyed.

The authors note that although international law forbids such attacks on healthcare facilities, healthcare workers, and patients, accountability for violence against healthcare is rare. For example, Russia was never held to account for bombing hospitals in Chechnya or Syria.

In 2012, the World Health Assembly charged the World Health Organization with creating a system to monitor attacks on healthcare, but the system is deeply flawed, the authors say. Improved systems for deterrence and accountability are needed to help avoid and address the morbidity, mortality, and outcomes that Ukrainians and others are experiencing.