Southern and Western Ukraine
We have assessed the needs in health facilities in Uzhhorod and Ivano-Frankivsk and are establishing a network to provide medical donations, including in frontline areas. We are carrying out trainings for health professionals in Ivano-Frankivsk and have carried out a mass casualty training at the main referral hospital in Mukachevo.
In the southern cities of Odesa and Mykolaiv, we have donated medical supplies to hospitals preparing to accept wounded and conducted mass casualty trainings for several hundred health workers. On April 4, a four-person MSF team visited Mykolaiv to meet with city and regional health authorities. As they entered the city's oncology hospital, which has been treating wounded people since the beginning of the war, the area around the hospital came under fire at about 3:30 p.m. local time.
In Lviv, teams have donated medical supplies to health facilities and are providing mass casualty training to hospital staff. In and around Zhytomyr we have donated trauma-related supplies and conducted mass casualty training in nine hospitals. We have also been able to move a considerable part of our tuberculosis (TB) supplies from Kyiv to Zhytomyr, where we were previously running a TB program.
In Vinnytsia Oblast, we are working with local hospitals to help them prepare for mass casualties, exploring how we can provide water and sanitation support, and making donations of medical supplies. In Nemyriv district, we have started supporting psychological care for people with mental health conditions and are planning to support physiotherapy for war-wounded patients.
Dnipro and Eastern Ukraine
Just before the war began in late February, MSF surgeons with experience in war zones provided training remotely to surgeons in key hospitals in eastern Ukraine that have since received many wounded people.
In Dnipro, an MSF team has conducted mass casualty trainings in hospitals and donated medical supplies to the regional hospital, helping prepare for future needs. In Kramatorsk, we have donated supplies to seven hospitals with the highest needs. In Orikhiv, we have donated first aid and surgical kits, and have provided mass casualty training for medical staff.
The humanitarian crisis in Mariupol is growing more and more desperate. The city in southeastern Ukraine remains surrounded by Russian military forces and subject to repeated artillery and aerial bombardment. Residents shelter in basements. Shops are closed. Food and clean water are difficult to find. Pharmacies have run out of medicines. People are lying dead in the streets. Gas and electricity have been off for days, in sub-zero temperatures. People are making fires to cook food and keep warm. Many ceasefire attempts have failed, trapping people inside the city and preventing humanitarian aid from entering. Civilian and medical infrastructure has been damaged, and communication is extremely limited. An MSF staff member from Mariupol shared his personal story of surviving under intense bombardment and being forced to flee.
MSF is calling for safe passage for those willing and able to escape across war-affected areas inside Ukraine, regardless of the existence of humanitarian corridors or temporary ceasefires. People who stay behind must not lose their civilian status: Warring parties must do everything in their power to prevent harm to civilians at all times, in all places.
In Zaporizhzhia MSF has started providing psychological first aid to people who have recently arrived from Mariupol and surrounding areas at reception centers and shelters. We have also donated medical supplies and carried out mass casualty training for staff at the main referral hospital in Zaporizhzhia. In Pokrovsk we donated medical supplies to the main hospital to support treatment of trauma and maternity patients.
