Neither Russia’s delegate banging her desk to interrupt Ukraine’s representative speaking at the World Health Assembly (WHA), nor her request to dismiss debate, stopped member states from condemning Russia’s attacks on Ukraine’s health system.

A report by the World Health Organization’s (WHO) Director-General before delegates estimated that Russia’s aggression on Ukraine has caused 55,600 civilian casualties, including 14,999 deaths.

Violence intensified in 2025 with civilian casualties going up by 31% compared to the previous year, and by 70% when compared to 2023.

The WHO also documented 579 attacks on healthcare facilities that caused 19 deaths and 204 injuries among healthcare workers and patients in 2025. This was an 18% increase compared to 2024.

“Since this report was published, WHO has recorded 190 new attacks on health care, with 86 injuries and 15 deaths between 1 January and 6 May, 2026,” said Dr Altaf Mossani, Director of Humanitarian Disaster Management, WHO Emergency Preparedness and Response program.

“On May 14, a clearly marked United Nations vehicle was severely damaged by drone strikes in Kherson City. This is the second incident that week,” he added.

Russia targeting healthcare infrastructure 

Countries raised alarm at the WHA that 202 of Ukraine’s 11,887 health facilities have been severely damaged, and 1,013 units are partially damaged.

“We strongly condemn Russia’s ongoing war of aggression against Ukraine and the deliberate escalation of attacks targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, including health care facilities, and we are deeply alarmed by the sharp increase in attacks on the health infrastructure since the last World Health Assembly,” Moldova’s representative told the WHA.

Civilian attacks also drew sharp criticism, leaving Russia isolated during the discussion.

“Russia’s attacks on energy infrastructure and other civilian targets, such as hospitals, elderly homes, or kindergartens, became increasingly vicious and brutal,” said Germany’s delegate.

“On average, it has been said already, there have been more than 3,000 Russian attacks directly affecting health care institutions, two each day.”

Ghana empathised with countries that are receiving a large number of refugees from Ukraine as a result of the conflict, resulting in an additional burden on their health systems.

High drama by the Russian representative

Russia’s representative first moved to dismiss the debate on the report on Ukraine entirely. That request was put to a vote and defeated.

Following extensive discussion on the report, Russia again moved to stop the WHA from noting the report.

Russia was reminded that noting the report was merely procedural, but it requested a vote again. Once again, countries voted in favour of noting the report.

At one point, the Russian representative banged the desk several times to interrupt the Ukrainian speaker, and was reminded to raise the country’s flag if she wanted to make a statement.

Russia then accused the WHO of spreading misinformation.

“WHO is talking only about attacks on Ukraine, ignoring the information that has been submitted to WHO on attacks on Russian facilities. So, we would ask WHO to stop misleading the world and to stop disseminating misinformation when it comes to voting on this report,” the representative accused.

WHO’s report noted that there were 21 attacks on healthcare facilities in Russia, causing 17 injuries. Russia did not agree with this number.

However, the Russian representative said, “more than 250 Russian facilities were attacked by Ukraine, and only 35 of them have been officially reported by WHO. And indeed, in the report, even that figure has deliberately been lowered”.

Russia opposed the noting of the report by the WHA. The report was noted nevertheless, following a vote.

Polio needs attention

WHA also discussed polio that remains an issue in several countries like Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Conflicts and funding cuts have in recent years interrupted polio vaccination campaigns.

In Gaza, polio made a resurgence as conflict raged. Most of these areas fall under the WHO’s Eastern Mediterranean Region (EMRO) region.

“We are actually the last part of the world where that virus remains endemic, but we are doing our utmost to tackle this issue. We have seen, however, that in Afghanistan and Pakistan there have been declines in transmission trends, and we think that is a cause for optimism about wild polio virus transmission,” Libya said, making a statement on behalf of the EMRO region.

Other countries reminded the WHA that polio is still a relevant issue that needs attention.

“We wish to recall that polio is still a global health challenge because new cases of wild polio have been recorded in certain countries, and there are new coast cases in conflict areas. Then, hence, the need for further international effort to ensure that we have national and regional preparedness,” Oman’s representative told the WHA.

Also read: Polio Eradication Imperiled by $2.3 Billion Funding Gap

Image Credits: WHO Ukraine, X/WHO, WHO.