Attachments
GENEVA - Four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, health care remains under sustained attack. Since 24 February 2022, a total of 2,591 attacks on Ukraine's health care system have been documented by Insecurity Insight in partnership with Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), eyeWitness to Atrocities, Media Initiative for Human Rights, Truth Hounds, and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center, making Ukraine one of the most dangerous contexts in the world for patients seeking medical care and for the health workers trying to provide it. On average, health care was attacked about 56 times every month between 24 February 2022 and 31 December 2025.
Insecurity Insight monitors and compiles data on these incidents. At least 359 health workers have been killed and 379 injured. Hospitals and clinics have been damaged or destroyed 1,389 times. Over 90 attacks directly affected maternal health services and over 120 attacks directly disrupted health services for children. These attacks have become a defining feature of the conflict, persisting and evolving: “Our data shows that armed drones now pose a serious threat to safe medical care, increasing by over 1000% since 2023, from 25 such incidents affecting health care in Ukraine in 2023, to 87 in 2024 to over 300 in 2025. Health workers operate under constant fear, patients delay or forgo treatment, and communities lose access to essential services. Under international humanitarian law, hospitals must never be targeted”, said Christina Wille, Insecurity Insight Director.
Hospitals and clinics have also been heavily impacted by Russia’s attacks on the country’s energy infrastructure, with at least 188 documented incidents impacting hospital utilities. Some attacks directly cut power or water to health facilities; others crippled services by knocking out energy systems across entire areas. Repeated strikes have caused widespread, prolonged outages, undermining hospitals’ ability to safely provide surgery, dialysis, intensive care, and cold-chain–dependent services. Early in the full-scale invasion, damage was often limited to individual facilities in frontline oblasts. Four years on, attacks increasingly leave entire communities, and their health systems, without essential utilities. “Attacks affecting health care extend far beyond direct strikes on hospitals, with impacts reverberating long after the attack. Damage to energy and other essential infrastructure has predictable and severe consequences for the delivery of care. The urgency of this situation in Ukraine cannot be overstated: the daily struggle of doctors and patients amidst constant attacks, cold, and darkness deepens the strain on a health system already stretched by years of war. This devastating assault on Ukraine’s health system must be met with meaningful accountability and real deterrence,” said Uliana Poltavets, Ukraine Program Coordinator, Physicians for Human Rights.
By the end of 2025, an estimated 10.8 million people across Ukraine will require humanitarian assistance in 2026, with humanitarian partners prioritising support to approximately 4.1 million of the most vulnerable individuals, including access to health care, shelter, and other essential services. Persistent attacks on health care put health workers and patients at risk and threaten the long-term viability of Ukraine’s health system.
Resources: This interactive map - in English and Ukrainian - documents attacks on health care in Ukraine since 2022. It allows viewers to explore where incidents took place and what happened; in some cases, this information is accompanied by photos. Incidents can be filtered by categories, including attacks on child health care and hospitals’ energy systems. The map is a joint undertaking among eyeWitness to Atrocities (eyeWitness), Insecurity Insight, Media Initiative for Human Rights (MIHR), Physicians for Human Rights (PHR), Truth Hounds, and the Ukrainian Healthcare Center (UHC).
Please contact Insecurity Insight for further information, interviews or data inquiries: Contact info@insecurityinsight.org