WHO members want Moscow office shut over Ukraine

COPENHAGEN, Denmark - The World Health Organization's European office will next week consider a resolution calling for the closure of a specialized WHO office in Moscow over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the health body said Friday.

A two-day special session of the UN health agency's regional office for Europe has been called for May 10 to discuss the issue.

Forty-three members of the WHO European region -- which comprises 53 countries, including several in central Asia -- have sent a letter with the proposal to WHO regional director for Europe, Hans Kluge.

The letter, sent on April 28, called for a special session to "consider the health situation in Ukraine and the wider consequences of the ongoing war on health matters in the region and beyond," WHO Europe said in a statement.

In the letter, the authors noted the war was having a "particularly devastating impact on Ukraine's health system, severely restricting access to medicines, facilities and health services".

The draft resolution strongly condemns "Russia's military aggression against Ukraine, including attacks on health care facilities in Ukraine."

The resolution also asks Kluge to "explore options" for the WHO European Office for the Prevention and Control of Noncommunicable Diseases, based in Moscow, including "the possible relocation" of the office to outside Russia.

It does not concern the WHO's country office for Russia, according to a WHO spokesman.

The resolution also calls for the regional director to consider "temporarily suspending" all regional meetings in Russia, including technical meetings and meetings of experts, as well as conferences and seminars.

The suspension was proposed to last "until peaceful resolution of the conflict between the Russian Federation and Ukraine is implemented and the Russian Federation withdraws its military forces from the territory of Ukraine". -- Agence France-Presse