Ukraine's health supplies hit in series of Russian strikes on medical warehouses

Warehouses supplying the vast majority of Ukraine's pharmacies have been destroyed in a series of Russian attacks over recent months.

Medical supplies worth about $200m (£145m) were destroyed in just two strikes in December and October. A

large warehouse storing medicines in the city of Dnipro was destroyed in a Russian air strike on 6 December. A

s a result, about $110m worth of medicines were destroyed - estimated at up to 30% of Ukraine's monthly supply. "

It was a missile and drone strike against our facility. T

he missiles flew past, but the drones hit it," said Dmytro Babenko, acting director-general of pharmaceutical distributor BADM. "

They caused a fire which unfortunately proved impossible to contain and the whole facility was destroyed." B

ADM is one of two companies that supply about 85% of Ukrainian pharmacies in roughly equal shares. T

he other company is Optima Pharm, whose warehouses have been hit three times this year - on 28 August, 25 October and 15 November. T

he October attack destroyed its main storage facility in Kyiv, and cost the company more than $100m, says Optima Pharm's chief financial officer Artem Suprun. R