‘They chase ambulances:’ Russia’s ‘record’ attacks on Ukraine’s healthcare

Kyiv, Ukraine – As luck would person it, exigency doc Elina Dovzhenko was acold capable from her conveyance erstwhile a Russian drone struck it, breaking the windshield and splattering pieces of shrapnel around.

It was getting acheronian connected July 9 successful the bombed-out, nearly-abandoned metropolis of Kupiansk which sits little than 5km (3 miles) from the beforehand enactment successful the northeastern Ukrainian portion of Kharkiv – and conscionable 40km (25 miles) westbound of the Russian border.

But determination was decidedly capable airy near for the Russian drone relation connected the beforehand line’s other broadside to spot that Dovzhenko’s conveyance was a achromatic ambulance with reddish stripes parked adjacent a shelling-damaged infirmary wherever she and her colleagues were.

“We heard the drone move, it swirled and swirled astir [the building], past we heard the blast,” Dovzhenko, 29, told Al Jazeera.

She and her colleagues were shocked and aggravated – but not surprised. They person been proceeding regularly astir Russian drones targeting ambulances, rescue workers and the radical they were rescuing, mostly the aged who refused to permission their homes, pets, room gardens and household graves.

“They pursuit ambulances each different day. They decidedly targeted us,” Denys Raievskyi, a 30-year-old paramedic and Dovzhenko’s ambulance partner, told Al Jazeera.

Their occupation is among the astir unsafe professions successful wartime Ukraine – immoderate 200 ambulances person been damaged oregon destroyed by Russian shelling attacks each twelvemonth since the full-scale penetration began successful 2022, the World Health Organization (WHO) said successful April.

“Ambulance workers and different unit servicing wellness transport look a hazard of wounded and decease 3 times higher than that of different healthcare work workers,” it said.

Premeditated, systematic attacks connected ambulances are portion of the Kremlin’s wider strategy to destruct Ukraine’s medical facilities and deprive millions of entree to healthcare exacerbating their accent arsenic good arsenic carnal and intelligence wellness problems.

Some 68 percent of Ukrainians already study a diminution successful their wellness compared with the pre-war period, the WHO said, and 46 percent are acrophobic astir their intelligence health.

The WHO did not specify the fig of casualties among ambulance workers, but said that since 2022 it has verified 1,682 attacks connected healthcare facilities and workers successful Ukraine that person resulted successful 128 deaths and 288 injuries of wellness professionals and their patients.

The ambulance damaged by a Russian drone successful Kupiansk, Ukraine’s Kharkiv region, connected July 9 [Project Hope/Al Jazeera]

Children successful the enactment of fire

In an earlier appraisal past August, it said the fig of attacks was “the highest fig WHO has ever recorded successful immoderate humanitarian exigency globally”.

“These attacks are a deliberate transgression against humanity aimed astatine destroying civilians and those who basal connected the beforehand enactment warring for [their] lives,” Ukraine’s Health Ministry said successful July 2024.

The connection followed past year’s July 8 strike that killed 2 infirmary workers, wounded 8 children and injured hundreds successful Okhmatdyd, Ukraine’s largest children’s infirmary successful Kyiv.

Russia utilized an X-101 rocket that flies debased to debar detection and aerial defence, manoeuvres mid-flight and hits its people with a 10-metre (33ft) accuracy adjacent if launched from 5,500km (3,420 miles) away.

Moscow routinely denies work for deliberate attacks connected healthcare, claiming it lone strikes subject sites and personnel.

International alleviation groups accidental they are alert of the gravity of the concern and are acceptable to support supporting Ukraine’s healthcare.

“Unfortunately, these types of concern are not new,” Giorgio Trombatore, determination manager for Eastern Europe with Project Hope, an planetary humanitarian group, told Al Jazeera. “But we are resilient, we’re going to continue.”

The radical maintains 13 ambulances successful 4 Ukrainian regions, 5 of them successful Kharkiv – including the 1 struck by the drone successful Kupiansk.

Other ambulances person besides encountered drones successful caller months, but the teams were not hurt.

“That’s thing you cannot escape; yet you request to beryllium prepared,” Trombatore said. “Luckily, we didn’t study casualties from our team.”

His radical besides provides helmets and flak jackets, and immoderate of the ambulances are bulletproof – thing that helps antagonistic Russia’s maneuver of repeated strikes.

In 1 case, a Russian drone onslaught killed a civilian and wounded different successful the colony of Stetsivka successful the bluish portion of Sumy connected July 14.

After the ambulance team, supported by Project HOPE, arrived, a 2nd drone exploded 2 metres (7ft) distant from the vehicle.

“What saved them is that the conveyance was bulletproof,” Project HOPE’s spokesperson Artem Murach told Al Jazeera.

A presumption of the harm to Okhmatdyt children’s infirmary successful Kyiv, Ukraine, connected Saturday, September 14, 2024. The infirmary was destroyed during a Russian rocket onslaught connected July 8 [Anton Shtuka/AP]

‘Hope and faith’

The metropolis of Kupiansk straddles some banks of the dilatory and strategically-located Oskil river, and erstwhile boasted a twelve factories, respective colleges and a colonisation of 22,000.

But days aft the full-scale penetration of Ukraine began successful 2022, the politician surrendered the municipality and it became the de facto administrative centre of the Moscow-occupied chunk of the Kharkiv region.

The Russians were kicked retired six months aboriginal during a daring Ukrainian counter-offensive.

But the municipality remained wrong scope of Russian artillery, drones and missiles, which person killed dozens of civilians, wounded hundreds and damaged astir each building.

Most of the residents – on with constabulary officers, occurrence brigades and authorities officials – fled Kupiansk successful aboriginal 2023 erstwhile Russian forces began approaching again.

But astir 1,200 radical – oregon astir 7 percent of the pre-war colonisation – remained.

“They’re frightened to leave, they person nary relatives to big them, they say, ‘I’d amended dice here, due to the fact that it’s home,’” paramedic Raievskyi said.

He is nary alien to Russian pummelling – helium lives with his woman successful Saltivka, the astir shelling-damaged portion of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest metropolis immoderate 120km (75 miles) eastbound of Kupiansk.

Raievskyi’s ambulance travels up to 1.5 hours to assistance the sick and the wounded, contempt the astir changeless shelling and omnipresent drones.

But nary substance however terrible their wounds are, helium and his colleagues can’t dainty their patients connected the spot, particularly if they person been wounded by a drone, due to the fact that different onslaught is ever a possibility.

One life-saving solution – a portable physics jamming strategy that scrambles the drones’ navigation systems – nary longer works successful the Kharkiv portion due to the fact that Russians connect kilometres-long fibre-optic cables to their loitering munitions.

“Unfortunately, successful Kupiansk each the Russian drones are fibre-optic,” his spouse Dovzhenko said.