The World Health Organization (WHO) has warned that Ukraine’s health care system is “going through the darkest days of the war” and called for a “humanitarian health corridor” to allow essential goods to be sent to all regions of Ukraine.

WHO has documented 703 attacks on healthcare infrastructure since the beginning of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, said Hans-Henri Kluge, the organization’s regional director in Europe.

In a speech in Kyiv, Kluge called such attacks “a violation of international humanitarian law and the rules of war.” Attacks on medical and energy infrastructure have left hundreds of hospitals and health facilities “not fully functional and lacking fuel, water and electricity to meet basic needs,” he said.

• “This winter will endanger the lives of millions of people in Ukraine.
• A devastating energy crisis, a worsening mental health emergency, restrictions on humanitarian access and the risk of viral infections will make this winter a difficult test for the Ukrainian health care system and the Ukrainian people, as well as for the world and its commitment to support Ukraine.” – said the WHO representative, reports The Guardian.

He warned that “cold weather can kill” as around 10 million people in Ukraine were left without electricity and in some parts of the country temperatures were expected to drop to -20 degrees.

• “The health care system of Ukraine is going through the darkest days of the war. Having suffered more than 700 attacks, it is now also a victim of an energy crisis,” the WHO director added, saying the organization and its partners would be “ready to mobilize at any moment” to create routes to send essential goods. delivery to hard-to-reach places.

He expressed particular concern about the 17,000 patients in Donetsk who, he said, could soon be without life-saving antiretroviral drugs.