Source: Physicians for Human Rights (PHR)
Approaching the three-year mark since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and its Ukrainian partners share new data, resources, and experts available for interview to support your team’s coverage of this upcoming milestone.
PHR and partners have systematically documented attacks on health in Ukraine through a database and interactive map (attacksonhealthukraine.org).
A staggering 1582 attacks on health care facilities, workers, and infrastructure have been perpetrated since February 2022. We are currently analyzing recent attacks and will again update the map ahead of the three-year mark – if you would like a preview of the upcoming data release please let us know.
Additionally: a first-of-its-kind report published last month by PHR and Truth Hounds details how Russia’s widespread and systematic attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid have harmed health care workers and endangered patients.
92% of 2,261 Ukrainian health care workers we surveyed report experiencing power outages at their health care facility due to attacks on energy infrastructure. The report documents how Russia’s assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure led to interrupted or delayed surgeries, forcing surgeons to operate in darkness illuminated only by flashlights; failures in life support systems; discontinued flow of water to hospitals; diagnostic and treatment equipment becoming unusable; patients experiencing panic attacks and cardiac arrhythmia due to lack of power; impeded maternal care service delivery; and other impacts on health care provision.
Previously, a case study by PHR and partners documented how Russian authorities have systematically sought to target Ukraine’s health care system to cement their control over the civilian population in Ukrainian territories under occupation.
PHR and our medical and human rights partners across Ukraine have conducted a wide range of research and advocacy since the full-scale invasion began, from attacks on health care to supporting survivors of conflict-related sexual violence in Ukraine. PHR experts routinely brief policymakers across Ukraine, US, Europe, and the UN system on human rights in the country.
PHR experts are available as sources for your reporting on Ukraine and the upcoming three-year mark. This includes Uliana Poltavets, who leads PHR’s Ukraine work from Kyiv and has co-authored all publications noted above. Poltavets can share insights about efforts to hold Putin and Russian military officials accountable for war crimes; the impacts of attacks on the energy grid and hospitals; and the need for sustained international support for Ukraine.
In addition to Poltavets, PHR has a wide network of Ukrainian and international clinicians, researchers, and advocates with whom we can also connect you to support your reporting. This includes Roman Koval, head of research at the Ukrainian organization Truth Hounds, and PHR health and human rights researcher Dr. Houssam al-Nahhas, a Syrian physician who researches attacks on health care (and who himself survived attacks on health care by the Assad government).