As a result of new Russian attacks, medical facilities in the Odesa and Sumy regions have been affected. According to the head of the Odesa Regional Military Administration, Oleg Kiper, the shelling in southern Odesa region damaged the maternity ward and administrative buildings of the hospital.
This is reported by Finway
Damage to the Hospital in Odesa
Kiper reported that the facade, doors, and over 30 windows of the medical facility were destroyed. At the time of the shelling, there were six mothers with newborns in the ward, as well as one woman in labor. Fortunately, the patients and medical staff were unharmed. Currently, work is underway to address the aftermath of the strike.
“The medical facility sustained damage to the facade, doors, and over 30 windows. There were 6 mothers with infants in the ward, and one woman was in labor,” Kiper reported.
Shelling of the Hospital in Sumy and the Scale of Destruction
On the same day, the mayor of Konotop, Artem Semenikhin, reported an attack by a Russian drone on the hospital in the city. He emphasized that it was indeed a strike, not the fall of a “Shahed,” as some sources had suggested. According to him, by a stroke of luck, there were no casualties or injuries, although the hospital buildings sustained damage.
According to the Ministry of Health, as of January 2026, 2,551 facilities in 817 medical institutions across Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed due to Russian aggression.
Russian military forces regularly use various types of weaponry – strike drones, missiles, guided aerial bombs, and multiple launch rocket systems – to attack Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure in all regions of the country.
The Ukrainian authorities and international organizations consider such actions as war crimes of the Russian Federation and emphasize their deliberate nature. The shelling of critical infrastructure, including medical facilities, aims to deprive citizens of basic living conditions: electricity, heat, water, communication, and medical assistance.
Experts note that regular strikes on hospitals and other life-supporting facilities exhibit signs of genocide, particularly due to the intentional creation of conditions that could lead to the destruction of part of the Ukrainian population. This is also indicated by numerous public statements from the Russian leadership regarding intentions to destroy Ukrainians as a nation, as well as the persecution of pro-Ukrainian individuals in occupied territories, the deportation of children, the destruction of the intelligentsia, and the targeted theft of Ukrainian cultural values.
According to the UN Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, participants have an obligation to prevent acts of genocide and punish them regardless of wartime or peacetime. The Convention defines genocide as actions aimed at the complete or partial destruction of a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group.
Despite numerous pieces of evidence, the leadership of Russia denies the intentional destruction of civilian infrastructure, hospitals, schools, energy, and water facilities throughout Ukraine.