Officials in Moscow have reportedly shuttered at least 160 public hospitals across the country so medical personnel can be diverted to the battlefield in Ukraine where Russia has sustained more than 500,000 casualties since launching the invasion in February 2022.
British officials said the list of closed hospitals includes 18 maternity centers and at least 10 children’s clinics Friday.
“Russian civilians in small towns and villages have frequently been left with reduced or unavailable medical care as a result of the closures, including now-limited pre-hospital services,” U.K. military intelligence officials said on X in their latest assessment of the battlefield in Ukraine.
The Kremlin’s prioritization of the war in Ukraine has “highly likely” resulted in insufficient funding for health care throughout the country. It has led to critical shortages of medical staff, expertise and equipment in the Russian medical system, British officials said.
The scale of Russian casualties in the fighting with Ukraine continues to strain Moscow’s military medical system at all levels, causing significant logistics challenges and a shortage of military medical personnel, officials said.
“This negatively impacts care delivery and has likely led to the diversion of medical services from the domestic civilian population to the military, further contributing to the large-scale impact to civilian hospitals,” U.K. officials said.
The number of health care professionals in Russian hospitals serving the country’s domestic civilian population will likely continue to decrease throughout 2025, British officials said.
