The attack on Okhmatdyt is a political signal and an operation to intimidate civilians — Pavlo Kovtoniuk

Since February 24, 2022, Russia has carried out more than 1,000 attacks on Ukraine’s healthcare system, according to Pavlo Kovtoniuk, co-founder of the Ukrainian Health Care Center, who spoke to Hromadske Radio.

«The attack on Okhmatdyt was not the most massive. It was rare because it was direct and targeted at the hospital. There were not many such attacks. The attack on Okhmatdyt is a signal. Russia has already used the practice of direct destruction of hospitals in previous wars, particularly in Syria. There have been few such cases in Ukraine over the past 2.5 years. The most high-profile was the destruction of a maternity hospital in Mariupol in March 2022. There are literally 1-2 more such cases.

The attack on Okhmatdyt is an attempt not so much to reduce the amount of medical infrastructure in Ukraine as to send a political signal or carry out operations to intimidate civilians.»

Pavlo Kovtonyuk believes that the attack on Okhmatdyt was indicative.

«This is the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine. It was the newest one. It was fully completed just a few years ago. The Russians know about it. A direct strike on it is raising the stakes, a demonstration of force in the Russian style.

Most of the destruction of hospitals in Ukraine occurred in 2022. It was not selective. It was just massive destruction, the use of indiscriminate munitions, and shelling of large areas. That is, Russia is deliberately looking for opportunities not only to fulfill its military objectives but also to cause suffering to civilians. This is their tactic.«

After the hit on Okhmatdyt, there were several more hits on other medical institutions. Is this tactic indicative?

«Unlike the attack on Okhmatdyt, I see no direct evidence of a targeted attack on another medical facility that took place afterward. We do not know whether it was direct or not. But this is not the point.

For Russia, the threat to civilian infrastructure is an additional argument in favor of the attack. They are looking for opportunities to further hit civilian targets during their military operations. Therefore, the fact that they got into those private hospitals is not surprising. It is important for them to cause as much collateral damage to civilian life as possible.«

The team of the Ukrainian Center for Public Health has prepared analytical reports on Russian attacks on medical institutions in Mariupol and the Kharkiv region. According to Pavlo Kovtonyuk, they wanted not only to keep general statistics but also to study the enemy’s psychology and tactics.

«This research helped us. Using the example of Mariupol, we saw what would happen if Russia could reach a large Ukrainian city. Mariupol is actually the only large city that the Russians were able to take. They razed 2 out of 4 districts of the city to the ground. In these two districts, they destroyed more than 80% of the medical infrastructure. Almost all of it. This shows that they are not interested in people. The Russians want to seize territory, and they don’t care about people. Most of the damaged or destroyed medical facilities are behind the front line, on the front line, or close to it. Their restoration is out of the question for now.«

As a reminder, a nephrologist at the Intensive and Efferent Therapy Unit for Chronic Intoxication, Svitlana Lukyanchyk, and a visitor to the hospital were killed in a Russian attack on the Okhmatdyt hospital. On July 10, a boy wounded during a Russian missile strike on the Okhmatdyt children’s pharmacy on July 8 died in intensive care, Health Minister Viktor Lyashko said.

In total, 44 people were killed and 196 injured in the massive attack by the Russian army on July 8.