An airstrike overnight on September 3-4 damaged one of the main World Health Organization warehouses in Kyiv oblast storing humanitarian medical supplies, the UN agency said on Friday. WHO spokesperson Christian Lindmeier told journalists in Geneva that access to the site remained restricted due to heavy smoke and safety concerns. No WHO personnel were affected, he said.
The attack is the third to hit a WHO-used storage facility in three months. Two weeks earlier, an attack destroyed a WHO warehouse in Dnipro, resulting in the loss of half the medical supplies and equipment intended to support an estimated 225,000 people in frontline and hard-to-reach areas. Another WHO warehouse in Kyiv oblast was damaged during large-scale attacks in July.
Lindmeier said the warehouse locations are communicated to all parties to the conflict through established deconfliction arrangements. "All warehouses, all UN locations, all WHO locations are de-conflicted—that means the whereabouts are communicated to all sides of the conflict, and that is well known," he said.
The WHO reported an expanding pattern of attacks on humanitarian storage facilities nationwide. Lindmeier said that in 2026, at least 20 attacks affected warehouses holding humanitarian supplies, including 15 targeting health-related supplies.
The agency said it is working with health partners across Ukraine to ensure medical supplies reach facilities and communities in need. Alternative storage arrangements have already been identified, while efforts are underway to assess damage and replace lost supplies.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion began on February 24, 2022, WHO has verified more than 3,000 attacks on healthcare, including strikes on health facilities, ambulances, medical supplies, and warehouses.
