Lhe snow appeared halfway along the route we were following a few days ago from the Polish border to kyiv. In the context of the war in Ukraine, the onset of winter made health a priority concern for the government and the population.
At the height of the bombardments in November, 50% of the installations supplying and distributing electricity in the country had been put out of order. Ten million people are now without electricity and many more millions face intermittent power outages every day. Nearly 250,000 households no longer have access to gas for heating and food. Large-scale bombings targeting civilian energy installations represent the most massive attack on the health of populations since the Second World War.
Without electricity, hospitals are at a standstill: incubators in maternity wards, freezers in blood banks, ventilators in intensive care units and operating theaters cannot function, and primary care services are dysfunctional.
Toxic substances
Several countries, including France as part of its bilateral aid and the European office of the World Health Organization (WHO) on behalf of the member states of the region, urgently deliver electricity generators to Ukraine. The kyiv authorities have just taken the decision to assign them as a priority to hospitals, making the hospital the point of last resort for access to electricity.
The cold, with expected temperature peaks of −20°C, will severely affect the daily life of millions of households living in poorly insulated buildings and in conditions that have become very difficult to access fuel, heating installations and warm clothes.
The cold directly endangers the lives of the sick and fragile people. Expect an increased incidence of heart attacks, strokes, severe respiratory infections and disruption of care for many people with chronic conditions this winter. In addition, the use of wood and coal heating in makeshift installations can expose children and people with chronic respiratory problems to toxic substances.
Our teams and the NGOs on the ground tell us that there are no longer any health structures or functional pharmacies in the recently liberated territories.
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