Doctors Without Borders closes operations in Russia

[September 17, 2024]  By JAMEY KEATEN

GENEVA (AP) — Doctors Without Borders said Tuesday it has closed its operations in Russia after 32 years, citing a Justice Ministry letter that said the medical aid group had been removed from a register of foreign nongovernmental organizations.

The aid group, also known by its French language name Médecins Sans Frontières and acronym MSF, said it will retain its branch office in Moscow, but operations – run by its Dutch affiliate – have stopped. It was MSF Netherlands whose registration was withdrawn, a group spokesman said in an email.

MSF has been in Russia since 1992, and has operated programs that provided aid for homeless people and migrants, tuberculosis treatment, and general health care including for infectious diseases like HIV.

The aid group said it had provided assistance to more than 52,000 people who either crossed into Russia from Ukraine or internally displaced people in Russia since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

MSF said it recently had been planning to respond to the humanitarian and medical needs of the internally displaced people in the Kursk region in Russia, where Ukrainian forces have recently made inroads.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that Russian forces had launched a counteroffensive in the Kursk region to dislodge Ukraine’s troops who stormed across the border more than five weeks ago. It was the first time since World War II that Russian territory was under foreign occupation.

Norman Sitali, the operations manager for MSF programs in Russia, said the aid group was “very sad” to end the programs, “as many people in need of medical and humanitarian assistance will now be left without the support we could have provided to them.”

"MSF would like to still work in Russia again if and when possible,” Sitali added.

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