KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The World Health Organization issued a stark warning on Thursday about a potential health crisis in Ukraine as the country faces its third winter of war since Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Ongoing Russian airstrikes have severely damaged the nation’s energy and health care infrastructure, leaving millions vulnerable as temperatures drop, officials from the United Nations agency said.
“Ukraine is approaching its third winter amid a full-scale war — likely its most challenging yet. The renewed focus on health is more critical than ever,” Hans Kluge, the WHO’s regional director for Europe, told reporters in Kyiv.
Since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, the U.N. agency has recorded nearly 2,000 attacks on Ukraine’s health care infrastructure, which it said is having a severe impact on the largely public health system.
“Targeted attacks have damaged Ukraine’s energy infrastructure. Frequent power outages are already taking a toll with danger signs for the winter,” Kluge said after a visit to front-line regions in eastern Ukraine.
“This could jeopardize the storage and distribution of vaccines, leading to a rise in vaccine-preventable diseases,” he said. Other concerns, he said, included possible contamination of the water system due to frequent power outages and growing signs of antimicrobial resistance because of a misuse of antibiotics.
“We have stories of wounds that simply will not heal due to resistance to antibiotics,” Kluge said. “This could have consequences far beyond Ukraine if drugs become ineffective.”
WHO plans to install 15 heating units at hospitals at risk of further attack as well as a network of treatment clinics in areas where health care access is difficult, as part of initiatives by local Ukrainian authorities and Western governments. The agency is also racing to provide generators and other backup power options, and also help implement state-planned health system reforms.
Early work on those projects, Kluge said, focused on Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city in the east, which has come under frequent Russian attack. Earlier this week, the agency also announced that it had organized the donation of 23 ambulances to assist medical services in mostly front-line areas.
Three people died and two were wounded after Russia struck Red Cross humanitarian vehicles on Thursday in Donetsk region, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
“The world must react firmly and fundamentally,” he wrote in an online post. “Countries and international organizations must not remain indifferent. Only together can the world force Russia to stop this terror and force Moscow to seek peace.”
___ Associated Press writers Derek Gatopoulos and Illia Novikov in Kyiv, Ukraine, contributed to this report. ___
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