One of the lesser known elements of the 2014 Crimea annexation is what catastrophe it caused for Ukrainian addicts and those sick with HIV/AIDS and TB and other chronic diseases.
Ukraine and Russia have serious HIV epidemics. Roughly a quarter of new HIV infections are from those who inject drugs in both countries. But they differ substantially in how they address the matter.
Russia is an extreme hard-liner on drug use. It does not embrace harm reduction at all. Opioid substitution therapy is illegal. Needle exchange programs are not promoted. What few NGOs that try to implement needle exchanges and provide naloxone opioid reversal agents have gotten labelled as foreign agents and heavily fined and harassed by the government. The consequences are predictably terrible for controlling both drug addiction and the resultant spread of disease from drug use.
Meanwhile, Ukraine has embraced harm reduction. They've implemented opioid substitution therapy and needle exchanges, and had great success bringing down new HIV infections as a result.
When Crimea was annexed in 2014, the Russian government closed the opioid substitution clinics and the needle exchanges. At least 100 of the ~800 Ukrainians in Crimea reliant on opioid substitution therapy died as a result of being cut off from their therapy. ART for HIV and TB medication also were disrupted. The trends in these public health programs reversed.
This invasion is going to be a public health disaster and a humanitarian disaster. Not just from the refugee crisis and devastation of the country, but from the harsh policies of the Russian government in occupied areas.