As Ukraine enters what may prove the hardest of its winters since the full-scale invasion began, the World Health Organization's Europe director has returned from the eastern front to say that health now demands attention above all else. The strikes that have battered the country's power grid have also reached into its hospitals and clinics, and the two wounds feed one another: cold rooms, failing generators and unreliable electricity threaten vaccines, clean water and the simple ability to heal. Against this backdrop, the agency is moving to fortify hospitals, restore care in hard-to-reach pl
WHO Warns of Health Crisis in Ukraine as Third Winter of War Strains Energy and Medical Systems
Three people died and two were wounded after Russia struck Red Cross humanitarian vehicles in Donetsk region, according to President Zelenskyy.
Wounds that simply will not heal due to resistance to antibiotics
Mark
Why is WHO talking about this now, before winter has actually arrived?
Mimi
Because the preparations take time. Heating units, generators and clinics have to be in place before the cold sets in. Kluge said early work has focused on Kharkiv.
Mark
What is the link between power cuts and health?
Mimi
He named vaccines first. Storage and distribution could be jeopardized, which could mean more preventable disease. He also raised possible water contamination.
Luke
Those are risks he described, though, not outcomes already measured. The source gives no figures on spoiled vaccines or contaminated water.
Mimi
That's fair. He called the outages a toll already, with danger signs for winter, but the specifics of that toll aren't given.
Mark
And the antibiotic resistance point?
Mimi
He said there are stories of wounds that won't heal because of resistance, and that it could matter well beyond Ukraine.
Luke
Stories, he said. That's anecdote, not a count. We don't know how widespread it is.
Mark
What about the number of attacks?
Luke
Nearly 2,000 is WHO's own recorded figure since February 2022. It's the agency's tally, and the source doesn't explain how attacks are counted.
Mimi
The Red Cross strike is a separate claim, from Zelenskyy: three dead, two wounded in Donetsk. It's his account in the source, not independently confirmed there.
Mark
So what is actually concrete?
Mimi
Fifteen planned heating units, 23 donated ambulances, and a focus on Kharkiv.
O Pulso
- Russian strikes on energy lines are cutting power to hospitals just as the coldest months close in.
- Nearly 2,000 attacks on health facilities since February 2022 have left a largely public system stretched to its limit.
- Vaccine cold chains and water safety are at risk, and resistant infections are beginning to defy treatment.
- WHO is racing to install 15 hospital heating units, deliver generators and open clinics, beginning in Kharkiv.
- A deadly strike on Red Cross vehicles in Donetsk has sharpened fears for those who carry aid into the war zone.
As Ukraine enters what may prove the hardest of its winters since the full-scale invasion began, the World Health Organization's Europe director has returned from the eastern front to say that health now demands attention above all else. The strikes that have battered the country's power grid have also reached into its hospitals and clinics, and the two wounds feed one another: cold rooms, failing generators and unreliable electricity threaten vaccines, clean water and the simple ability to heal. Against this backdrop, the agency is moving to fortify hospitals, restore care in hard-to-reach places and steady a public health system that has already absorbed nearly two thousand attacks.
On Thursday in Kyiv, Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe, warned that Ukraine is entering its third winter of full-scale war and that it may be the hardest yet. Fresh from the eastern front, he urged that health be treated as a matter of urgency.
The danger, the agency says, lies in two damaged systems at once. Russian airstrikes have hit the energy network and the health care infrastructure alike, and WHO has counted nearly 2,000 attacks on Ukrainian health facilities since the invasion in February 2022. Frequent outages are already doing harm, and Kluge warned they could spoil vaccines, allow diseases that vaccines prevent to return and contaminate water supplies.
He also flagged rising antimicrobial resistance, with accounts of wounds that refuse to heal because bacteria no longer respond to drugs, a threat he said could reach well beyond Ukraine's borders.
WHO is working with Ukrainian authorities and Western governments on a practical response: 15 heating units for hospitals at risk of attack, a network of clinics in hard-to-reach areas, generators and backup power. Work has begun in Kharkiv, the repeatedly struck eastern city, and the agency has also arranged 23 ambulances for mostly front-line services.
The same day, President Zelenskyy said Russia had hit Red Cross vehicles in the Donetsk region, killing three people and wounding two, and called on the world not to remain indifferent. The question now is whether the promised heating, power and clinics arrive in Kharkiv before the temperatures fall further.
On Thursday in Kyiv, Hans Kluge, the World Health Organization's regional director for Europe, told reporters that Ukraine is heading into its third winter of full-scale war, and that it is likely to be the hardest yet. He had just come back from front-line regions in the east, and his message was that attention to health matters more now than at any point so far.
The cause, according to the UN agency, is the damage done by Russian airstrikes to two systems at once: the country's energy network and its health care infrastructure. Since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, WHO has recorded nearly 2,000 attacks on Ukrainian health care infrastructure. The agency says this is taking a severe toll on a health system that is largely public.
Kluge laid out how the two failures feed each other. Targeted strikes have damaged energy infrastructure, and frequent power outages are already causing harm, with what he called danger signs for the winter ahead. Power cuts could compromise the storage and distribution of vaccines, he said, which could lead to a rise in diseases that vaccines normally prevent. He also pointed to the risk that water systems become contaminated when outages are frequent.
A third concern reaches beyond Ukraine's borders. Kluge described growing signs of antimicrobial resistance, linked to the misuse of antibiotics. He said there are accounts of wounds that simply will not heal because the bacteria no longer respond to the drugs. If medicines become ineffective, he warned, the consequences could extend far beyond Ukraine.
WHO is responding with a set of practical measures, carried out alongside local Ukrainian authorities and Western governments. The agency plans to install 15 heating units at hospitals considered at risk of further attack, and to set up a network of treatment clinics in areas where reaching care is difficult. It is also working to supply generators and other backup power, and to support health system reforms that the Ukrainian state has already planned.
Kluge said early work on these projects has concentrated on Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, in the east, which has been hit repeatedly by Russian attacks. Earlier in the week, WHO also announced that it had arranged the donation of 23 ambulances to support medical services, mostly in front-line areas.
The same day brought a reminder of the danger to those delivering aid. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia struck Red Cross humanitarian vehicles in the Donetsk region, killing three people and wounding two. In an online post he said the world must react firmly and fundamentally, and that countries and international organizations must not remain indifferent. Only together, he wrote, can the world force Russia to stop what he called terror and to seek peace.
What to watch now is whether the heating units, generators and clinics WHO has described are in place, starting in Kharkiv, before temperatures fall further.
Citações Notáveis
Ukraine is approaching its third winter amid a full-scale war, likely its most challenging yet.— Hans Kluge, WHO regional director for Europe
The world must react firmly and fundamentally.— President Volodymyr Zelenskyy
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