A 12-year-old dies in occupied Kherson Oblast where no hospital or ambulance is left, Ukrainian official says
The official says the nearest hospital in the town where the child died is 60 km away. Russian authorities have sent no aid to the area for over a year.
A 12-year-old Ukrainian child succumbed to illness without medical assistance in the Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast, according to Svitlana Linnyk, an official from the Kherson Oblast who is in exile. The child's mother could not reach an ambulance pickup point due to no ambulance service being available locally, and no medical supplies or workers were present in the area, Linnyk told Ukrinform on August 13, 2026.
This incident occurred amidst a broader humanitarian crisis in the occupied Kherson Oblast, where drone attacks, mines, and movement restrictions have hindered the delivery of medical aid and evacuations in nearby communities Oleshky and Hola Prystan, situated across the Dnipro river from Kherson city. As of May, approximately 6,000 civilians, including 200 children, remained in these areas.
Similarly dire medical shortages are reported in other occupied parts of Ukraine, with access to free medicines often contingent upon possessing a Russian passport. Hola Prystan, where the child tragically passed away, lacks any operating hospital or rural medical facility, according to Linnyk. Only two pharmacies remain in the community, both located in Hola Prystan and the nearby village of Nova Zburivka, and are selling off their dwindling stock.
The closest hospital is situated in Skadovsk, a Black Sea port occupied by Russia about 60 kilometers away from Hola Prystan by road. Nova Zburivka's ambulance service has been inactive since 2025. Linnyk alleged that Russian occupation authorities have provided no humanitarian aid to villages surrounding Hola Prystan for at least eight months, or to the city itself for over a year.
She also stated that a Moscow Patriarchate priest occasionally brings supplies to the area, but only to those with Russian passports. This pattern of tying essential services to acceptance of Russian citizenship is a common theme in occupied Ukraine. In April 2025, Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported that Russian occupiers were administering uncertified vaccines to children under six in Luhansk Oblast, describing them as of unknown origin.
Later in November, the Center reported that a Russian inspection found Crimea's main children's hospital lacking essential medical equipment, resulting in a 9% increase in infant mortality on the occupied peninsula compared to the previous year. In occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast, Russian officials threatened to deny medical care to residents without Russian passports in 2023.
A 2025 Kremlin policy further tied the availability of free medicines for chronic illnesses to Russian citizenship. Ukraine's Health Ministry reported in July 2024 that Russian forces had destroyed 214 medical facilities, though the full extent of the damage remains unknown due to limited access to occupied territories.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
