Ukraine’s medical supplies hit by series of Russian attacks on medical warehouses

Warehouses supplying the vast majority of Ukraine’s pharmacies have been destroyed in a series of Russian attacks in recent months.

Around $200m (£145m) worth of medical supplies were destroyed in two strikes in December and October.

On December 6, a large pharmaceutical warehouse in the city of Dnipro was destroyed in a Russian air strike. As a result, approximately $110 million worth of pharmaceuticals were destroyed – an estimated 30% of Ukraine’s monthly supply.

Dmytro Babenko, acting general director of pharmaceutical distributor BADM, said: “This was a missile and drone attack targeting our facility. The missile flew over, but the drone hit it.”

“They started a fire which, unfortunately, was uncontrollable and the entire facility was destroyed.”

BADM is one of two companies supplying approximately equal shares of approximately 85% of Ukraine’s pharmacies.

Another company is Optima Pharm, whose warehouses have been attacked three times this year, on August 28, October 25 and November 15.

Optima Pharm Chief Financial Officer Artem Suprun said the October attack destroyed its main storage facility in Kiev, costing the company more than $100 million.

Russia has denied attacking civilian targets, but when the Optima Pharm warehouse was attacked in October, Moscow’s Defense Ministry said only that the target was a factory that produces drones.

On the day the BADM warehouse was destroyed, Russia said it had attacked “a warehouse storing military equipment” as well as energy and transport infrastructure.

Nearly four years after Russia’s all-out war, such attacks complicate the care of wounded and sick Ukrainians.

The NGO International Rescue Committee (IRC), which has been using the Dnipro warehouse, said $195,000 worth of medicines and supplies were missing from the warehouse that could have served 30,000 people in need.

Andriy Moskalenko of the IRC said: “I was shocked when I arrived at the scene, the scene was simply terrible. All these drugs could have served people for years, but they were all gone in the blink of an eye.”

The Dnipro facility “serves as an important hub for hospitals, healthcare providers, pharmacies and humanitarian actors,” the IRC said.

BADM’s Mr Babenko said the Russian attack destroyed “vital medicines” that were imported and not produced in Ukraine.

“It’s a fairly complex situation,” he told the BBC.

But he hopes the attack will not leave Ukrainians without medicine.

“There will not be serious shortages, it may just be shortages of certain types of goods. We hope to have all supplies restored within a month or a month and a half,” Babenko said.

Ukrainian authorities have accused Russia of deliberately targeting hospitals, ambulances, medical personnel and rescue workers, a claim Moscow denies.

According to the Kiev government, more than 2,500 medical facilities were damaged or destroyed, and more than 500 civilian doctors, nurses and other medical staff were killed.

Earlier this month, the World Health Organization said there had been 2,763 attacks on Ukraine’s health care system since Russia launched its full-scale invasion, adding that attacks would increase by 12% by 2025 compared with the previous year.