The occupation administrations established by the Russians have turned medical care into a full-fledged instrument of pressure and blackmail. The local population in the occupied territories, who do not want to accept the rules established by the occupants, including accepting citizenship of the Russian Federation, are often deprived of access to medicines. The most critical of these are insulin.
Insulin treatment helps maintain normal blood sugar levels, allowing diabetic patients to live active and healthy lives. For many diabetic patients, insulin is life-saving and they need regular injections as recommended by their doctor.
The deliberate restriction of access to insulin in the occupied territories first came to light in the summer of 2023. The Center for National Resistance of Ukraine reported that in the temporarily occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia region, patients with diabetes could not receive insulin if they did not have Russian passports. At that time, the Center reported that Russians do not issue insulin even to those Ukrainian citizens who take it for their children.
A few months later, a similar situation occurred in the Kherson region. The information was officially confirmed by the Russian-appointed head of the occupation administration of the Lazurne settlement in Kherson Region, Oleksandr Dudka. He said that residents without a Russian passport will not be issued insulin and other medicines. In his video message, he even referred to an official document that was issued by the occupation administration.
"An official document has already come out that medical drugs, which are purchased from the russian budget, will not be issued to foreign citizens, i.e. citizens of Ukraine. First of all, this applies to insulin, who have already felt how it is to be a citizen of another country. The same applies to the issuance of humanitarian aid and other issues of those people who have not issued a Russian passport at the moment," Dudka said.
A similar policy of the occupation administrations was noticed by the local ones in temporarily occupied Mariupol, Donetsk region. Advisor to the Mariupol city mayor Petro Andryushchenko reported that since September 2023, Mariupol has finished issuing insulin to diabetic patients in the absence of a Russian passport.
As confirmation, he circulated a video of a local resident, who was denied the drug at the local polyclinic No. 1, citing his lack of citizenship.
An advertisement posted in the hospital states that "medicines for budget funds are issued to persons of privileged categories if they have Russian citizenship".
At the same time, as Andriushchenko notes, sometimes Russians themselves deliberately delay the process of issuing Russian passports in Mariupol.
Information about the ban on the issuance of insulin was also confirmed by the Center for National Resistance, noting that such blackmail of diabetics is part of the enemy's policy of forced Russification of the captured lands.
According to the Atlas Diabetes in Ukraine, as of 2020, there were 4,052 people with diabetes in the Luhansk region who needed regular insulin. There were another 11280 in Donetsk region, 8951 in Zaporizhzhia region and 5447 in Kherson region. Taking into account the percentage of occupation of these regions, we can talk about more than tens of thousands of Ukrainian citizens who are deprived of the opportunity to receive insulin in the territories that were occupied after February 24, 2022.
It is worth noting that these actions are quite qualified as crimes against humanity, as defined in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. In particular, it is article 7, paragraph 1: (b) extermination.
This term is interpreted in the following paragraph:
"'extermination' includes the intentional infliction of conditions of life calculated to destroy a part of the population, inter alia deprivation of access to food and medicine;"
It is also worth recalling that from the perspective of international law - all residents of the occupied territories of Ukraine are protected persons for Russia. These are civilians who have fallen into the power of the opposing side due to the military conflict or occupation of the territory, their status is enshrined in the Geneva Convention and, accordingly, Russia is responsible for their safety and health.
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