International humanitarian law protects civilians and civilian infrastructure, including humanitarian workers, they should never be targeted.

This is said in a statement by the UN Humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine Denise Brown on the latest attacks on humanitarian workers in Ukraine, received by the Interfax-Ukraine agency on Thursday.

“It is extremely disturbing to hear that our colleagues from the Ukrainian NGO Mission Proliska came under fire yesterday in Kharkiv region, while delivering much-needed humanitarian aid to families facing the horrors of Russia’s invasion. The Proliska team was using a clearly marked vehicle – a humanitarian vehicle, protected under international humanitarian law,” the statement reads.

As Brown noted, “earlier this week, on 9 July, I once again had to condemn a strike affecting humanitarian assistance in the front-line town of Orikhiv, in Zaporizhia region. And following that tragic incident, another attack in Kherson impacted the delivery of humanitarian aid on 11 July. In each of these three unacceptable attacks, civilians have been impacted.”

“As humanitarians, we have one purpose: saving and protecting the people of Ukraine whose lives have been upended by Russia’s invasion. These attacks only highlight the challenges we are facing, exacerbated by the lack of access to support Ukrainians in areas currently under Russian control. International humanitarian law protects civilians and civilian infrastructure, including humanitarian workers. They must never be a target,” the statement reads.