A key World Health Organization warehouse storing medical supplies in Ukraine has been destroyed in an air attack, marking the third WHO warehouse to be hit in the past three months and raising fresh concern over the safety of humanitarian operations in the country.
The WHO said the latest strike occurred early Thursday in the Kyiv region, destroying one of its main storage facilities holding medical supplies meant for people living in frontline and hard-to-reach areas.
"an air attack in Kyiv region destroyed one of WHO's main warehouses storing humanitarian medical supplies.
"Access to the site remains restricted due to heavy smoke and safety concerns, while assessments of possible damage and stock losses are ongoing. No WHO personnel were affected."
The agency said the latest incident followed an attack two weeks earlier in Dnipro, where another WHO humanitarian warehouse was completely destroyed.
That strike wiped out half of the medical supplies and equipment stored at the facility, which had been intended to support an estimated 225,000 people.
A third warehouse used by the WHO in the Kyiv region was also damaged during a large-scale wave of attacks on Kyiv and the surrounding region in July.
The WHO's Europe branch said the three incidents were part of a wider pattern of attacks on humanitarian facilities across Ukraine.
"In the past three months, three warehouses used by WHO in different regions of Ukraine have been destroyed by airstrikes, ruining essential medical supplies intended for frontline and hard-to-reach areas," the WHO's Europe branch said in a statement.
The agency said humanitarian facilities are supposed to be protected from attacks and that the locations of its warehouses and other United Nations facilities are communicated to all sides in the conflict.
"In my understanding, all warehouses, all UN locations, all WHO locations are deconflicted," WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier told reporters in Geneva.
That means their whereabouts are clearly communicated to all sides in an armed conflict.
The latest attacks have also disrupted efforts to deliver medical assistance, with the WHO saying its teams are now forced to spend time and resources moving supplies between locations to keep them safe.
"Right now, our teams are spending valuable time and resources moving supplies from site to site to keep them safe; time and resources that should go into delivering health care, not protecting it from attack," said Silviu Domente, the WHO's representative to Ukraine.
"We are deeply concerned by the growing pattern of attacks on health in Ukraine, including on humanitarian storage facilities."
The WHO said the attacks on warehouses form part of a wider threat facing humanitarian operations in the country.
According to the UN aid agency OCHA, at least 20 attacks on warehouses storing humanitarian supplies have been recorded in Ukraine in 2026.
The WHO said it had itself verified 15 attacks on warehouses containing health-related supplies so far this year.
The health agency said it verifies and records attacks on healthcare but does not assign blame, as it is not an investigation agency.
The WHO has verified more than 3,000 attacks on healthcare in Ukraine since Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Health facilities and the wider health system are protected under international humanitarian and human rights law.