The non-governmental organization Doctors Without Borders (MSF) on Friday denounced the implementation of Russian attacks on two Ukrainian hospitals in the Donetsk and Kherson regions, which killed at least four people.
As a result of these attacks, the organization was forced to temporarily suspend its presence in these two hospitals, but assured that it would continue to work in other health centers in the region.
Employees of the organization were present in both hospitals, but were not injured.
MSF denounced that Russia’s offensive endangers the lives of those who provide health care and its own ability to deliver aid.
The latest attack, carried out on Monday, targeted Donetsk’s Selidovo Hospital, where Ukrainian authorities confirmed the deaths of three people. There were five MSF staff in the hospital facilities, the latter said in a statement.
According to Artem Tretiakov, an ambulance driver with Doctors Without Borders, the explosions started being heard around midnight, “but they were heard closer and closer.”
Suddenly, he recalled, “a rocket (…) hit the building.”
As a result, Selidovo Hospital suffered serious damage, as did two MSF ambulances, part of a system of these vehicles that has displaced more than 10,600 people since May 2022, shortly after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine transported.
In addition to the attack in Donetsk, MSF recalled that the Russian army had attacked another hospital the previous Monday, in Kherson, where MSF also has a presence, killing one person and wounding three.
“We strongly condemn these horrific attacks on hospitals, which have caused tragic deaths and injuries to patients and medical staff (…). Medical facilities are supposed to be places where lives are saved, not where they are lost,” the general coordinator said. of Doctors Without Borders in Ukraine, Vincenzo Porpiglia.
MSF has been working with the emergency and intensive care units at Selidovo Hospital since July last year, while it has been present at Kherson Hospital since October.
The military offensive that Russia launched in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 caused the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II (1939-1945), according to the most recent UN data.
The Russian invasion – justified by Russian President Vladimir Putin on the need to “denazify” and demilitarize Ukraine for Russia’s security – was condemned by most of the international community, which responded by sending weapons to Ukraine and impose political and economic sanctions on Russia.
Source: DN
