Key Highlights
• The year 2024 has been particularly challenging for Ukraine, marked by an alarming escalation in airstrikes, artillery attacks, and ground combat along frontline communities. ACLED data reports 14,727 air and drone strikes, which has resulted in widespread devastation and significant civilian casualties.
• According to the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU), 2,064 civilians were killed, and 9,089 injured in 2024, although these figures are likely underreported. Aerial bombs alone accounted for 360 deaths and 1,861 injuries.
• An increase in traumatic injuries such as fractures, amputations, and spinal cord damage has led to a growing need for specialized trauma treatment, comprehensive physical rehabilitation, and mental health support.
• Targeting of civilian infrastructure, including hospitals, power plants, and residential dwellings severely disrupted access to essential services, leaving millions with reduced access to health care, housing, and water. • In 2024, 3.67 million Ukrainians remain displaced.
• In this context, humanitarian workers face an increasingly insecure operational environment, with 9 killed and 40 injured in the line of duty in 2024.
• Hospitals and health facilities remain vulnerable to attack across the country. In 2024, the Health Cluster, through WHO's Surveillance System for Attacks on Health Care, verified 470 attacks in 2024, which resulted in the deaths of 73 healthcare workers and patients and injuries to 405 more. Casualties amongst health workers and patients represent a 31% increase in attacks and a staggering 200% rise in comparison with the previous year.
• An alarming trend has also emerged with regards to attacks on health care: ‘double tap’ strikes - attacks deliberately targeting rescuers - are becoming more frequent, further endangering patients, health workers, and first responders and complicating the delivery of emergency medical services. As of August 2024, Truth Hounds verified 36 cases of double strikes between February 2022 and August 2024. Of the verified instances, 20 were recorded in 2024, highlighting the escalation in use. However, the actual number of such attacks is likely to be significantly higher.