Public Health Fakes: Children’s Hospital in Kramatorsk to Be Reprofiled as a Military Hospital. Issue #135

Kremlin-affiliated Telegram channels have circulated a photo of an alleged order from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine dated July 15, 2024. Citing a decision by the Ministry of Defense, the “document” claims that the children’s hospital in Kramatorsk will be reprofiled as a military hospital for soldiers and their families. Consequently, the hospital would supposedly no longer admit children.

What’s the reality?

The so-called “order” is forged, as indicated by numerous errors. For example, in the very first sentence, the authors of the “document” fail to align the wording properly. They write “according to the decision of the Ministry of Defense dated 04.07.2024, order No. 1417 on…”. The correct phrasing should have been “according to the decision” or “according to the order”, as it refers to a single document. Moreover, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine did not publish any orders on July 4, 2024. The Ministry of Defense’s press service also did not report any orders on that date.

The Russians also erred in the document number itself, as the last order numbered 476 from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine was issued on March 20, 2024. That document was related to amendments to the Ministry’s activity plan for preparing regulatory acts for 2024. In authentic orders, there should be a signature of an authorized person, such as the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko, at the bottom. However, the Telegram photo lacks a signature, and the “Ministry of Health” heading is not bolded as it is in real documents.

The authors of the fake also made mistakes in the first item of the “order”. They mention “reformatting the children’s hospital… to a military hospital ( до військового шпиталю)“, whereas the correct phrasing would be “reformatting the children’s hospital… into a military hospital (на/у військовий шпиталь)“. The Russians also forgot to translate the word “city” from Russian and wrote “г. Kramatorsk” instead of “м. Kramatorsk”. (The first letter  “г” indicates that the word “city” was shortened from Russian). Additionally, in original documents, it is evident that all orders from the Ministry of Health of Ukraine are issued in Kyiv, not in Kramatorsk or other cities.

The medical center on Heroiv Ukrainy Street 17, mentioned in the letter, is a municipal city hospital No. 3 of the Kramatorsk City Council. The facility indeed provides services to children but is not exclusively a children’s hospital. The fake creators made another mistake, as if the hospital were really being reprofiled, the full name would have been stated. Furthermore, according to the “Fundamentals of the Legislation of Ukraine on Health Care“, decisions on the reorganization or re-profiling of healthcare institutions are made by local governments. Therefore, the Ministry of Health of Ukraine would not have the authority to reprofile a hospital in Kramatorsk.

All these errors indicate that the “document” was hastily crafted to be published as quickly as possible. The main goal is to discredit the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and portray it as “not caring” about civilians. In this case, the propagandists are also employing the tactic of “accusing the victim of what you are doing yourself.” It is the Russians who have repeatedly reprofiled civilian hospitals into military hospitals in temporarily occupied territories.

With such fakes, the Russians also attempt to divert attention from their own crimes, such as the destruction of civilian medical facilities. As of July 22, 2024, since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russians have completely destroyed 214 medical facilities and damaged another 1,642 facilities. A total of 885 medical facilities have been fully or partially restored. According to the Minister of Health of Ukraine, Viktor Liashko, Ukraine will need over $14 billion in the next 10 years to repair the damage to the healthcare system.