WHO data suggests more Ukrainians could die in attacks on medical facilities in 2024

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s largest children’s hospital on July 8 underscored the rising number of deadly attacks on medical facilities, vehicles and staff in the country this year. The incident complements data from the World Health Organization (WHO) suggesting that more Ukrainians could be killed in such attacks this year than in 2023.

Before the attack on the Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv, the WHO had documented 18 deaths and 81 injuries in over 175 attacks on health infrastructure in Ukraine in the first half of 2024. In addition, the organization recorded 44 attacks on medical vehicles during the same period.

In 2023, the organization recorded 22 deaths and 117 injuries in 350 such attacks, including 45 that specifically targeted medical vehicles such as ambulances. Other organizations report even higher death tolls.

According to local authorities, at least one doctor and another adult in the hospital were killed in the July 8 attack and at least 50 other people, including seven children, were injured.

Attacks on civilian hospitals are prohibited under Article 18 of the Geneva Convention, which the United Nations member states ratified after World War II. In addition, Article 20 of the Convention requires that health workers be protected by all belligerent parties.

“I want the Russians to feel it for themselves”: Shock and anger at the site of the attack on the children’s hospital

Nurse Olesia Filonenko was preparing for the first operation of the day at the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv when she heard explosions “somewhere far away.” “Then in a second everything was blown away,” she told the Kyiv Independent. “Dust, smoke. We were all blown out of the operating room…”