KYIV, 2 November - UNFPA started delivery of 30 ambulances to maternity hospitals in 19 regions of Ukraine today. The ambulances will provide life-saving reproductive health services for women, ensure safe deliveries and prevent maternal death.

The ambulances, provided with support from the Government of Spain, are equipped with gynaecological examination chairs, ultrasound devices, defibrillators, stethoscopes and essential medicines and are crucial to UNFPA's humanitarian response to the war in Ukraine.

"Spain's solidarity with Ukraine remains strong and delivering. The first Spanish humanitarmobilian aid cargo was shipped in February, only a few days after the first Russian shellings on Kyiv. Today our engagement continues as we hand over 30 mobile clinics aimed at providing healthcare services to women and girls, who are among the most vulnerable victims of this war. Women are at the core of our feminist foreign and development cooperation policy and the protection of their rights underpins our support to Ukraine." said Mr. Ricardo López-Aranda Jagu, Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Kingdom of Spain in Ukraine.

The ambulances will be used for emergency obstetric and newborn care as well as for non-obstetric emergency cases for women who have suffered from violence or who have reproductive health conditions. In addition, medical staff in the mobile clinics will connect survivors of gender-based violence to appropriate prevention and response services in a timely and safe manner.

“UNFPA is scaling up its activities and plans to run at least 32 sexual and reproductive health mobile clinics nationwide in Ukraine. The demand for such services is very high, as expressed by H.E. Ms. Olena Zelenska, First Lady of Ukraine, in a recent meeting with Dr. Natalia Kanem, Executive Director of UNFPA. With these mobile clinics, reproductive health check ups and consultations can be conducted remotely, even if there are no health-care facilities in the area or they are destroyed,”  said Mr. Pavlo Zamostian, UNFPA Deputy Representative in Ukraine.

As a result of the war, many medical facilities in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed and the delivery of essential reproductive health services has been severely compromised. At the beginning of the conflict, an estimated 265,000 pregnant women did not have access to maternal care and survivors of gender-based violence could not access specialized services. In response, UNFPA has delivered over 100 tons of medicines and surgical, resuscitation and hygiene supplies to maternity hospitals across Ukraine.

Background information:

UNFPA works to ensure access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services for women and girls. Four SRH mobile teams (clinics) already operate in Kyiv, Lviv and Vinnytsia regions. Since the start of the full-scale war, these teams have provided medical assistance to more than 8,000 women and girls.

Read more about UNFPA Sexual and Reproductive Health programme here.