Industrial injuries among Ukrainian workers during performance of work at the conditions of hostilities and ways of its prevention
Authors: Nagorna A. M. , Kalnysh V. V. , Petchenko I. V. , Radionov M. O. , Kompaniiets O. A. 
Published: January 2025

The purpose of the work is to determine the prevalence of industrial injuries among workers of Ukraine in the conditions of hostilities and the ways of its prevention.
Materials and methods. Observation of the formation of occupational injuries (OT) was carried out for the years 2022-2024 in comparison with the pre-war years - 2011-2021. The prevalence and structure of VT indicators in Ukraine were determined based on the principle of a continuous statistical sample of primary documents compiled for all cases of newly discovered and registered VT at work. The data were obtained with the help of the Pension Fund of Ukraine, the State Service of Ukraine on Labor and the State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Complex hygienic, epidemiological, medical-statistical methods and system analysis were used to solve the problems.
The results. The assessment of injury trends for the period 2011–2024 shows that the total number of injured people at work is gradually decreasing, in particular due to changes in economic and social conditions, as well as labor migration. Thus, according to the data, the decrease in the number of people injured at work coincides with the general trend of reducing workers in the most dangerous industries (coal industry, construction, etc.). At the same time, the number of combat-related injuries increased dramatically during the war, including injuries and deaths of workers during rocket attacks, shelling, mine explosions, and other war-related events.
For the years 2022-2024, 2157 cases of injured workers who performed their work duties in the conditions of hostilities or during the liquidation of their consequences were analyzed, of which 592 (27.4%) cases were fatal. The obtained correlation data show that injuries at enterprises in the conditions of hostilities show a significant difference in their indicators compared to peacetime. Strong correlations between the number of injuries, deaths and accident rates confirm the presence of direct effects of combat conditions on the safety of workers during the performance of their work duties.
Conclusions. In order to develop ways to minimize industrial injuries among workers performing labor duties in combat conditions, it is necessary to develop additional protective measures for high-risk industries: applying new approaches to reducing the risk of OT, which would include reinforced protective structures, changes in technology production, transfer of certain processes to safer places (underground or in fortified premises), construction of reliable shelters at production facilities and provision of workers with appropriate means of protection, rapid medical response training and mental health support adapted to war conditions, conducting appropriate training for employees of enterprises, regarding actions in the event of military threats, including the development, implementation and delivery of evacuation plans to employees and compliance with personal safety rules.