Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has carried out at least 101 attacks that have disrupted power supply to Ukrainian hospitals.
This is stated in the report of the human rights organization "Physicians for Human Rights" (PHR) and the Ukrainian organization Truth Hounds (TH), which documents Russian crimes.
Doctors for Human Rights has documented a total of 1 539 attacks on Ukraineʼs healthcare system since the full-scale Russian invasion.
According to their estimate, 780 hospitals and clinics were destroyed or damaged, and 244 health care workers were killed.
The results of a survey of healthcare workers published in the report indicate a change in the nature of the attacks they face. From February to September 2022, attacks aimed directly at hospitals and their internal power supply systems were recorded more often. However, since October 2022, there has been a significant increase in the number of strikes on the energy infrastructure, and accordingly, there has been a significant increase in the number of reports of power outages, in particular those affecting the power supply of hospitals.
Of the 2 261 healthcare workers surveyed, 20.9% said their facilities had been directly attacked. The vast majority of respondents also reported power outages as a result of energy strikes.
Such cases were recorded among 97% of respondents in the Dnipropetrovsk region, 96.2% — in the Kyiv region, 93% — in the Lviv region, 97.4% — in the Odesa region, 98.5% — in the Kharkiv region, as well as 83.9% — in the Chernihiv region and 92% — in the city of Kyiv.
PHR and Truth Hounds monitoring found that at least 31.7% of health care attacks were direct attacks on hospitals that resulted in blackouts. This directly impacted the ability to provide patient care, required costly repairs, and increased vulnerability to future attacks.
Another 37.8% of cases were attacks on critical energy infrastructure facilities with an impact on healthcare institutions. Most of these incidents occurred in the coldest months of 2022-2023 (October to April), with another peak in the spring of 2024.
Survey datashowed that 92.3% of healthcare workers reported power outages in their healthcare facilities as a result of power infrastructure attacks, with 26% of those reporting outages experiencing such outages on a daily basis.
Power outages interrupted medical procedures for 66.3% of healthcare workers surveyed at least once between February 2022 and July 2024. 8.4% of surveyed medical workers reported delays in scheduled operations, and 1.7% had to interrupt procedures due to power outages.
In addition, 1.8% of respondents reported malfunctions of life support systems (for example, ventilators, cardiac monitors) due to power outages. Outage disruptions also caused disruptions in dialysis (0.5%) and pregnancy and birth care (0.4%).
The interviewed medical workers also said that power outages disrupted the functioning of communication systems (35.7%), water supply (21.5%), heating and ventilation (19%), as well as elevators (16.5%) in hospitals.
In addition, 7.8% reported malfunctions of diagnostic equipment such as X-ray machines and MRI machines. 13.8% of respondents reported problems with the storage of medicines, when refrigeration equipment for certain drugs and vaccines failed, leading to their spoilage, and 3.6% of respondents indicated difficulties in storing biological samples, such as blood or embryos.
Interviewed medical workers reported that most outages lasted from one hour to a day. Among those who experienced power outages, 2.5% reported outages lasting more than four days.
Although 78.4% of respondents indicated that backup power sources were always available and 16.6% said they were partially available, 40.9% reported delays in activating these systems that ranged from one hour to several hours days
Ukrainian medical workers also reported serious health damage and deaths related to power outages. Most of the cases of irreversible health damage (11 of 36 reports) and deaths (7 of 20) were related to organ damage due to insufficient oxygenation, which is when patients who cannot breathe on their own lose access to ventilators.
Also, turning off the lights led to cases of damage to patientsʼ organs due to untimely surgery (8 reports), untimely medical procedures (7), other malfunctions of vital equipment (7), and also due to lack of dialysis (3).
Other deaths due to power outages include untimely medical procedures (4), other vital equipment malfunctions (4), untimely surgeries (3) and lack of dialysis (2).
Power outages also affect medical staff on a personal level. Among the surveyed medical workers, 82.9% reported increased levels of stress, burnout and other problems, with 27.3% facing such difficulties every day.
Conclusions and recommendations
In the conclusions to the report, "Doctors for Human Rights" and Truth Hounds demand that the Russian Federation immediately stop its aggression, stop attacks on medical workers and health care facilities, as well as on energy infrastructure facilities that are critically important for civilian life.
The aggressor country is also urged to refrain from indiscriminate attacks that threaten not only peopleʼs health, but also civilian energy systems.
In addition, the PHR and TH also provide the following recommendations:
To prosecutors and investigative bodies:
- prioritize the investigation of attacks on energy and medical infrastructure as war crimes and crimes against humanity;
- allocate resources to build cases of damage to the health care system and preserve evidence for later use in justice processes.
Government of Ukraine:
- implement legal and policy measures to ensure full documentation and investigation of attacks on energy and health facilities;
- ensure documentation of the health consequences of these attacks and provide support to affected patients and health facilities, including providing psychological assistance.
To the international community:
- increase support for Ukrainian healthcare institutions to meet their critical needs;
- publicly condemn attacks on medical and energy infrastructure facilities and advocate for their immediate cessation;
- strengthen compliance with international norms protecting health care facilities and civilian infrastructure, support accountability mechanisms, and condemn arms sales in violation of the UN resolutions;
- improve the collection and sharing of data on attacks affecting health and energy services;
- strengthen cooperation with NGOs and national health authorities to improve documentation, as well as increase the resilience of health care facilities affected by prolonged power outages.
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