WHO delivers 20 all-terrain ambulances to Ukraine

By Peter Kenny

GENEVA (AA) - The World Health Organization on Monday gave Ukraine’s Health Ministry 20 all-terrain ambulances able to work in damaged and inaccessible areas to support emergency health needs as Russia has continued bombarding its neighbor’s towns and cities.

“We bring not just supplies but support based on your needs. Today we are handing 20 ambulances, along with generators and blood refrigerators, to hospitals wherever they are needed,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

“But the most important thing we want to see delivered is peace,” he said of the war started by Russian forces on Feb. 24.

During a three-day visit, Tedros handed over the ambulances’ keys to Ukraine’s Deputy Health Minister Iryna Mykychak in Lviv, western Ukraine.

The day before, in the capital Kyiv, Tedros said at a news conference with Ukraine’s Health Minister Viktor Liashko that he grew up in a war zone in his native Ethiopia, so he knows the “devastation of war first hand.”

“And I felt very, very sad when Russia invaded Ukraine because I know its impact and devastation,” said Tedros after meeting Ukrainian officials, including the prime minister.

- 200 attacks on healthcare facilities

Tedros said the WHO has verified 200 attacks on healthcare facilities in Ukraine since the war began.

“These attacks must stop. Health care is never a target. While I saw and learned of great suffering, I also saw bravery, humor, kindness and heard stories of spontaneous, often ingenious ways people have found to help and protect one another.”

Mykychak, for his part, said: “Today, we received modern off-road vehicles from the WHO to ensure medical evacuation.

“These ambulances can drive to the most important places available, even where the roads have been most damaged.”

During his Ukraine trip, Tedros visited health facilities damaged during the war and spoke with healthcare workers who provided care in the torchlight, eventually evacuating all patients when it became too dangerous to continue.

“Two months into the war, the medical infrastructure in Ukraine has been significantly damaged due to the continuous attacks on health care, and access to health care in many areas has been severely impacted,” said the WHO.

Jarno Habicht, WHO representative and head of the WHO Country Office in Ukraine, said: “One of the health workers we spoke to remembered how during the days of constant shelling in their city, ambulances continued to operate even during curfew to ensure people received the care they needed.”

At least 3,309 civilians have been killed and 3,493 others injured in Ukraine since Russia launched a war on the country on Feb. 24, according to UN estimates. The true toll is feared to be much higher.

More than 5.8 million people have fled to other countries, with some 7.7 million people internally displaced, according to the UN refugee agency.