Russian strikes destroy WHO warehouse in Dnipro, medical supplies lost
WHO says three strikes in early August destroyed a Dnipro warehouse holding medical aid for frontline health facilities; some supplies were moved beforehand.
A World Health Organization (WHO) warehouse in Dnipro, Ukraine, storing emergency medical supplies destined for frontline health facilities, was struck three times over several days and its stock destroyed, the WHO said, reporting that teams had managed to move part of the shipment before the final strike.
The facility was first hit on 3 August, prompting WHO staff to judge it unsafe and begin relocating supplies. It was struck again on 7 August shortly after one WHO employee and several drivers had left the site, and a few hours later a third strike levelled the building, the agency said.
WHO teams evacuated 130 of roughly 300 pallets to another location before the attacks. The value of supplies stored at the facility before the strikes was estimated at about $500,000. There were no casualties in the attacks, and WHO is still assessing the full scale of the damage.
Humanitarian impact
Hans Henri P. Kluge, WHO Regional Director for Europe, warned that the destroyed stock was intended to keep health services running near the front line and that its loss will reduce the availability of medicines, equipment and the capacity to treat the sick and wounded.
“These attacks must stop immediately. Even wars have rules. One of them is that health must be protected,” Kluge said.
Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets denounced the attack as a cynical strike on the most vulnerable. “This is an attack on essential medicines intended for hospitals and the people closest to the front. I see a clear and cynical aim by the Russians — to deprive people of life‑saving means,” he wrote on Telegram.
The WHO noted this was not the first time UN agencies and humanitarian transports have been endangered in Ukraine: in May a UN convoy delivering aid to civilians in Kherson region was badly damaged in two Russian drone strikes. The agency has also documented an increased risk to ambulance drivers and staff involved in transporting health workers and patients during the war. Separate reporting also says Russian strikes hit Odesa and Dnipro, leaving 18 people injured and with some deaths reported.
Photo: Dmytro Lubinets / Telegram
