Kyiv, 4 August, 2023 – At the time of writing, the same hospital that was shelled on Tuesday in Kherson Region, Ukraine, resulting in the death of a doctor and the wounding of five medical staff, is once again under artillery fire. The fact that the first attack was widely reported and condemned appears to have changed nothing in the way the hospital and the surrounding areas are being shelled. Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has repeatedly called for the protection of hospitals and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, and once again condemns this outrageous attack on a medical facility.
As sirens signalled incoming artillery fire, a member of staff from MSF was working in the hospital bunker, which MSF logistical teams continue to refurbish.
Just kilometres from the frontline, in territory re-taken by Ukrainian forces last year, the hospital has now been shelled twice in 72 hours. Since 24 February, 2022, MSF has repeatedly called for the protection of medical facilities after witnessing their destruction in Kherson, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv and Mikolaiv oblasts. This latest attack on a hospital is consistent with a pattern that MSF has observed in this war – and particularly with regard to Russian forces’ continued shelling of civilian infrastructure, residential areas and medical structures:
