- The WHO estimates that there have been 703 attacks on hospitals and other medical facilities in Ukraine.
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| Red Cross personnel work at the scene of a Russian bombing. |
Ukrainian doctors hide their identity to avoid being attacked by the Russian army
Ukrainian medical personnel has been forced to hide their profession to avoid becoming targets of Russian attacks. This is confirmed by the humanitarian organization Medics4Ukraine, which denounces that front-line doctors have become "high-value targets" for Russian forces, according to the Daily Mail.
Medics4Ukraine, which works with medical personnel on the front lines, says medics are coming under fire more than in any other war to the point of having to "remove the red crosses from their uniforms" so as not to be identified by Vladimir Putin's troops.
"Doctors are specifically targeted by the occupation forces and are considered high-value targets. This puts them in the line of fire as they try to save the lives of those wounded in the war. It is probably one of the most dangerous positions on the front lines. ", says Mark Hannaford, founder of this charity.
"Doctors are specifically targeted by the occupation forces and are considered high-value targets"
This deliberate targeting of medical personnel by Russian forces violates international humanitarian law, Hannaford says. And it is that intentionally shooting doctors who wear identifiable insignia is considered a war crime according to the Geneva convention.
The WHO has estimated a total of 703 Russian attacks against hospitals or other medical facilities in Ukraine since the start of the war last February. This is even more than the number of Russian attacks on medical facilities in Syria in ten years.
Last week, a newborn baby died at a hospital in Vilnyansk, in Ukraine's Zaporizhia region, when a Russian airstrike hit the building. The mother and the doctor survived after being pulled from the rubble, authorities said.
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