GENEVA — The World Health Organization has confirmed “several” attacks on healthcare centres in Ukraine and is investigating others, the agency’s chief said on Sunday (March 6).

The attacks caused multiple deaths and injuries, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus added in a Twitter message.

s or workers breach medical neutrality and are violations of international humanitarian law,” he said.

In his brief post, Tedros did not mention Russia, which invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.

British military intelligence said on Sunday that Russian forces were targeting populated areas in Ukraine but that the strength of resistance was slowing the Russian advance.

“The scale and strength of Ukrainian resistance continue to surprise Russia,” British military intelligence said in an update. Russia “has responded by targeting populated areas in multiple locations, including Kharkiv, Chernihiv and Mariupol”.

“Russia has previously used similar tactics in Chechnya in 1999 and Syria in 2016, employing both air and ground-based munitions,” British military intelligence said.

Russia has repeatedly denied that it is targeting civilian areas.

The country’s defence ministry said on Sunday that its forces have struck and disabled Ukraine’s Starokostiantyniv military air base with long-range high-precision weapons.

“The Russia armed forces continue to strike the military infrastructure of Ukraine,” Russian defence ministry spokesman Igor Konashenkov said.

“On the morning of March 6, strikes were carried out by high-precision long-range weapons. The Ukrainian air force base near Starokostiantyniv was disabled.”