KYIV/NEW YORK, March 23, 2023—Medical services have been severely disrupted in war-torn areas of southern and eastern Ukraine due to the destruction of medical facilities, restrictions on civilian movements and the unpredictable behavior of Russian forces, the international medical humanitarian organization Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) said today, sharing a summary of accounts from health workers and patients, Between enemy lines: the destruction of health care in Ukraine.
Despite making requests to work on both sides of the war's front line, MSF medical teams have only been able to operate in areas once they come under Ukrainian control. After the front shifted to the southeast in late 2022, MSF assessed the needs of people in 161 towns and villages in the Donetsk and Kherson regions that had been caught in the fighting.