Russia's war on Ukraine takes toll on civilian health services: UN

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) - Nearly five months into Russia's war on Ukraine, the civilian population faces lethal landmines littering their country, disrupted cancer and medical services, with one in three people food insecure, UN officials said Friday.

"One in three households in Ukraine is food-insecure, rising to one in two in some areas of the East and South," UN World Food Program Geneva spokesman Tomson Phiri said at a UN press conference.

"WFP has rapidly scaled-up assistance through food distributions or cash in Ukraine, reaching 2.6 million people in June, and continues to work with partners to reach areas close to the front lines.

Phiri said that in such areas, fighting prevents people, especially the elderly and families with children, from accessing food as he assessed the war's impact, along with others from among the 1,400 UN agency members in Ukraine.

At the same press conference, Dr. Dorit Nitzan spoke by phone from the World Health Organization's Odesa hub with colleagues from the WFP and other UN agencies.

She is part of the WHO mission to Odesa and Mykolaiv, which Russian forces are attacking.

- Mental health

"Our focus is the health needs of affected populations – the people whose physical and mental health has been harmed and has deteriorated due to the Russian invasion and its consequences," said Nitzan.

"The people who have not been able to receive early diagnosis and treatment for cancer now have much more advanced tumors and critical illness."

She said some of the people who have not been able to receive medication have failing hearts or have suffered strokes.

Nitzan also spoke about people with diabetes who could not get treatment and whose disease is now severe, along with premature babies, pregnant women, and older people who are “highly vulnerable.”

"Other people have been suffering the terrible effects of missiles, attacks, and other shelling," said Nitzan, while others get "burns and damage to eyes, leaving people permanently or partially blind."

Nitzan added: "The noise and bombardment damages hearing and landmines have caused amputations. And, of course, there is the fear, the grief, and the uncertainty that exerts on mental health.

- Landmines everywhere

"In Ukraine, landmines are everywhere," she said.

The Halo Trust, an organization, engaging in demining worldwide, noted last week that Ukraine's State Emergency Services said 300,000 square kilometers (115,831 square miles) of the country needs to be cleared of mines.

That area is equivalent to Italy or the US state of Arizona.

Nitzan said there are increasing reports of people undergoing limb amputations.

She added: "It's just unbelievable; young people sometimes divert from the road and get hit badly.

"And it's not only amputated legs; sometimes, you see damage to hips and whole intestines. It's just horrific."