Further evidence of Russian forces' aggression against healthcare workers and their families emerges

Invading Russian forces loot medical facilities and put pressure on doctors and their families in temporarily Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine

This was reported by the head of Ukraine's National Health Service, Nataliya Husak, on the live broadcast of the telethon.

She noted that Ukraine's National Health Service is in contact with all managers and medical institutions in the temporarily occupied territories. She also reported that the invading Russian forces, in addition to putting pressure on the doctors themselves, issue illegal decrees and loot medical facilities.

"We keep in touch with all our leaders, with all medical institutions. It's not only threats, it's pressure on relatives, it's some illegal decrees, and it's robbery of our medical institutions," Husak said. 

Recently, according to the head of the Ukraine's National Health Service, a meeting was held with the heads of medical institutions in the liberated Kharkiv region. Husak said that everything was taken out of the hospital, including tables. Also, the so-called "Ministry of Health of the LPR" prohibited certain groups of doctors from providing medical assistance.

"It's hard to listen calmly. Even in ordinary paramedics and midwifery stations, everything was taken out, including the tables. That is, all the equipment. We had examples when the so-called "Ministry of Health of the LPR" did not like that medical care can be provided by doctors registered as individual entrepreneurs, and I never thought that we would get to the point where they would be prohibited from providing medical care, and these doctors would go to their patients at night to provide medical care," Husak said.

In addition, some medical facility workers could be kept in basements for months and demanded access to hospital accounts. The  occupying Russian forces prevented them from providing medical care and repeatedly violated international law.

Husak thanked those doctors who remained in the temporarily occupied territories and continued to provide medical assistance.

"I want to thank the medical workers who stayed with their patients. Because in reality, people with chronic diseases and the elderly did not leave. There is a need for medical assistance for such people," the head of Ukraine's National Health Service said.