Strikes on Humanitarian and Civilian Infrastructure in Ukraine Raise Growing Human Rights Concerns

Human Rights Research Center
10 hours ago
3 min read

August 12, 2026

HRRC strongly condemns the repeated attacks on humanitarian, healthcare and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine, which have disrupted the delivery of essential medical and humanitarian assistance to conflict-affected populations. HRRC calls for strict adherence to international humanitarian law and urges all parties to ensure the protection of civilians, humanitarian workers and facilities providing life-saving assistance.

January 2, 2024. Ukraine, Kyiv. A powerful attack on a Ukrainian city with Russian missiles. A residential building was destroyed. Rescuers and firefighters are assisting civilians and extinguishing the fire. [Image credit: Dmytro Tolokonov/Unsplash]

Continuous Russian strikes on humanitarian facilities and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine have intensified concerns over the protection of civilians, aid workers and access to essential services during the ongoing war.

A World Health Organization (WHO) warehouse in Dnipro, which contained emergency medical supplies intended for frontline health facilities, was struck on multiple occasions on 9th and 10th of August, which ultimately destroyed them.

These supplies and infrastructure were worth approximately USD $500,000 and could support an estimated 225,000 people. The WHO teams managed to relocate 130 of approximately 300 pallets before the facility was destroyed. No casualties were reported, however, WHO warned that the loss of medicines and equipment would potentially reduce the capacity of health services to treat sick and wounded people on the frontline.

As per the WHO data, 3,149 attacks on health care facilities have been recorded in Ukraine since the start of February 2022, 240 deaths have been reported and hundreds of incidents have severely affected medical facilities and supplies.

More recently, on July 19th, a strike on a UNICEF Humanitarian warehouse in the Kyiv region resulted in nearly USD $3.9 million in losses and led to the destruction of more than 106,000 aid supplies intended for children and families in conflict-affected zones.

Separately, on August 1st, a Russian drone strike also destroyed nearly eight million books at a publishing warehouse in Kharkiv, severely damaging the publishing sector and cultural infrastructure.

The continuous Russian strikes on humanitarian facilities and civilian infrastructure in Ukraine have intensified concerns over the protection of civilians, aid workers and access to essential services during the ongoing war. According to the International Humanitarian Law (IHL), an essential service is a system comprising three types of components: hardware (e.g., infrastructure, equipment, etc.), people (operators and maintenance staff) and consumables (material necessary for the functioning of the infrastructure, such as fuel, or for the delivery of the service, such as medicine). Ukrainian officials also confirmed that these attacks affected health care, humanitarian facilities and aid deliveries, which undermines access to life-saving assistance and raises serious concerns regarding compliance with international humanitarian law.

Glossary

Adherence – the fact of someone behaving exactly according to rules, beliefs, etc.
Civilians – persons who are not members of the police or the armed forces.
Compliance – the act of obeying a law or rule, especially one that controls a particular industry or type of work.
Cultural Infrastructure – Cultural infrastructure is the institutional architecture, collections, archives, governance, trust, intellectual property, and recurring partnerships through which culture's value is retained, organized, and compounded across generations, rather than consumed within a single program cycle.
Healthcare – the activity or business of providing medical services.
Humanitarian – (a person who is) involved in or connected with improving people's lives and reducing suffering.
International Humanitarian Law (IHL): International humanitarian law (IHL) is a set of rules that seeks, for humanitarian reasons, to limit the effects of armed conflict.
Pallets – a flat wooden structure that heavy goods are put onto so that they can be moved using a forklift truck (= a small vehicle with two strong bars of metal on the front that is used for lifting heavy goods)
Relocate – to move or move something or someone from one place to another.
Undermines – to make someone less confident, less powerful, or less likely to succeed, or to make something weaker, often gradually.
Warehouse – a large building for storing things before they are sold, used, or sent out to shops.

References

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Strikes on Humanitarian and Civilian Infrastructure in Ukraine Raise Growing Human Rights Concerns

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