Although nearly nine months have passed since the Russia-Ukraine War, which began on February 24, 2022, the war is still ongoing and continues to increase its violence each passing day. Thousands of people lost their lives due to war, and millions of people were forced to emigrate. Many issues have opened a discussion about the Russian-Ukrainian war, such as the energy crisis, food crisis, climate crisis, and migration. Because this war has exceeded the scope of traditional security approaches and for this reason, it has begun to be addressed with new security approaches. Health security is one of these areas.
Health security, in its most general definition, is the whole of activities aimed at combating famine and hunger, reducing the negative effects of environmental pollution on human health, combating epidemics, reducing child deaths, and increasing clean water opportunities. The most important environment that feeds security threats arising from health problems is war and conflicts. According to the “World Report on Health and Violence” published by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2002, 191 million people died between 1945 and 2002 due to non-war acts of violence and adverse health conditions as a result of wars. This is not just about the people who died on the battlefield of the Russia-Ukraine War, but also it reveals the need to examine people who are not directly on the battlefield but have health problems affected by the war.
The Russia-Ukraine War has local and global effects in terms of health security. Local effects are specific to the borders of Ukraine; global effects are seen around the world on the occasion of Ukrainian immigrants.
After the start of the war in Ukraine in February 2022, many cancer patients who could not receive early diagnosis and treatment died or their tumors progressed and became more critical. The constant witness of conflict and bombardment by the civilian population has caused the public’s mental health to deteriorate greatly. Even if they were not directly attacked, civilians exposed to the sounds of bombardments began to experience a great deal of hearing loss and deafness.
Access to food and medical products has also been restricted due to the constant curfew declared in the country because of air strikes. Due to the war, many health institutions and employees in Ukraine became incapacitated, and even at the very beginning of the war, on March 15, 2022, WHO shared its data with the world public to emphasize this situation.
According to the data in question; until March 15, 2022, 31 attacks were carried out on Ukrainian health services, 26 of these attacks damaged or destroyed health facilities, and in 5 attacks ambulances were damaged or destroyed. In the statement made by WHO based on these data, it was stated that attacks on health services have a direct impact on everyone’s access to basic health services, especially women, children, and other vulnerable groups.[1]
WHO announced in September 2022 that there were more than 500 attacks on the Ukrainian healthcare system. It was stated that these attacks disrupted health services and therefore the number of Covid-19 cases in Ukraine will increase in the coming months.[2] New threats in the field of health security in Ukraine continued to increase with the intensification of the war day by day.
The Russia-Ukraine War has global effects as well as local effects on health security. Moreover, this situation carries much greater risks than local ones. The most important of these risks have emerged with the immigration problem. After the war began, a period of nine months passed and in this short period, approximately five million Ukrainians had to immigrate from their country. This mass of immigrants can cause local diseases to be carried to the countries they migrated to.
If the country of emigration is in good economic condition, it can create living spaces for Ukrainian immigrants and prevent the spread of diseases. However, in economically weaker countries, immigrants mix directly with the local population, and health problems are put in the background compared to basic living needs. This can cause diseases to spread and mutate. For this reason, an epidemic that may start in the country that receives immigrants can spread to the whole world. For example, in November 2021, twenty children were diagnosed with polio in Ukraine, and therefore a vaccination campaign was started by the Ministry of Health of Ukraine.[3] However, it is not known exactly what measures were taken after the war broke out. For this reason, there may be people with the disease in question among the immigrants. Considering that polio is a contagious disease, the existence of an epidemic risk cannot be denied.
In addition to the new epidemics, Covid-19, which is not yet ended, may grow again due to these migration waves and return to its old levels. Moreover, since the Russia-Ukraine War is a conventional war, both sides use ballistic missiles. In addition, forests are burned and destroyed for the passage of army convoys. This, in turn, leads to the escalation of the climate crisis, which is effective worldwide and directly affects global health security negatively. Although the current situation is rhetorical, the danger of a nuclear war also poses a great threat to global health security.
As a result, the Russia-Ukraine War has created a significant threat to health security both locally and globally. The continuation of the war may cause much bigger problems in the future, especially for the countries that accept Ukrainian immigrants. Although the population affected by the war in the current situation is predominantly the Ukrainian people, the war to become globalized. Therefore, it can be said that global health problems may be encountered more frequently.
[1] “Stop Attacks on Healt Care in Ukraine” UNICEF, https://www.unicef.org/turkiye/en/press-releases/stop-attacks-health-care-ukraine, (Date of Accession: 04.11.2022).
[2] “ВООЗ прогнозує жовтневий сплеск COVID-19 в Україні”, UNN, https://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1994023-vooz-prognozuye-zhovtneviy-splesk-covid-19-v-ukrayini, (Date of Accession: 03.11.2022).
[3] “В Україні виявили новий випадок поліомієліту у маленької дитини”, UNN, https://www.unn.com.ua/uk/news/1961244-v-ukrayini-viyavili-noviy-vipadok-poliomiyelitu-u-malenkoyi-ditini, (Date of Accession:03.11.2022).
