WHO says four UN-used warehouses in Ukraine were hit since July, with more than $1.5 million in medical supplies destroyed

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on 15 October that more than $1.5 million worth of medicines and medical supplies has been destroyed in four strikes on warehouses used by the United Nations in Ukraine since July 2026. The figures were published by UN News, which describes the strikes as Russian attacks. The reports reviewed here do not include a response from Russia’s defence ministry.

What WHO reports

According to WHO, 21 warehouses have been targeted in 2026, within a total of 400 incidents it counts against health care in the country. It says nearly all of them involved heavy weapons, a category that covers tanks, missiles, bombs and mortars. WHO communications officer Sarah Tyler said that, over three months, four warehouses used by the organization were hit and three of them were destroyed.

WHO’s regional emergency and health security director, Dr Ihor Perehinets, warned that when a warehouse is struck, medicines, medical equipment, laboratory reagents and other essential supplies can be lost. He said that protecting health services also means protecting the people who provide them, together with supplies and infrastructure.

Wider toll on health care

Since the full-scale invasion in February 2022, WHO says it has verified more than 3,300 attacks on health care in Ukraine. It reports that these attacks have killed 247 people and injured more than 1,090 health workers and patients. Its 2026 appeal for Ukraine asks for $42 million to support 700,000 people.

The announcement came after a week of heavy strikes. UN News reports that overnight attacks into Wednesday, 14 October, killed at least three people in Kyiv and left hundreds of thousands without power. We covered those events in Russia fires 39 ballistic missiles and 128 drones at Ukrainian energy: 600,000 without power, dead in Kharkiv and Lutsk, and the humanitarian office’s account of the Kharkiv and Kyiv attacks in OCHA: Russian attacks on Kharkiv and Kyiv killed civilians and injured dozens; Zelensky reports four dead in Kharkiv.

UN News also cites UNICEF, which described the loss to families after a weekend attack in Zaporizhzhia as “unimaginable” and said such violence “must not become the new normal”. UN News puts the deaths in that attack at more than 20, including four children.

The figures above are WHO’s own counts, relayed through UN News; they have not been independently verified here.