People displaced by conflict are struggling in Ukraine

Over 190,000 displaced this year alone

According to the UN Refugee Agency, more than 190,000 people have fled to safer areas in Ukraine this year alone, adding to millions already displaced since the full-scale invasion in 2022 and the start of the international armed conflict in the east in 2014. As thousands of people continue to flee from frontline areas, the Dnipropetrovsk region has now become a critical transit hub, leaving displacement shelters overcrowded. When the numbers of displaced people began to surge in July and August, one of the largest transit shelters was housing around 500 people per day, despite having space for just 140. 

MSF teams are working via mobile clinics in these shelters to provide medical consultations and psychological support, primarily to people who are elderly. Since April 2025, MSF teams have treated more than 1,400 patients, but we are witnessing a growing number of needs and increasing severity of cases. For this reason, we recently increased the frequency of visits and expanded medical assistance to additional locations where people are arriving.

“My city, Kostiantynivka, is in ruins,” says 68-year-old Valerii Bureiko, who arrived with his wife and elderly mother-in-law at an MSF-supported transit center. “There is nothing left: no water, no gas, no police, no firefighters. That’s why we decided to leave. It’s easier for younger people, but at our age, we won’t be able to build anything in a new place, so it was a very hard decision.” 

Villages turned to ghost towns

People are becoming displaced as cities and villages have turned into ghost towns: empty streets, trees blackened by explosions, buildings left damaged and uninhabitable, health care inaccessible. MSF teams refurbished hospitals in Dnipro, Dnipropetrovsk region and Donetsk region in 2022, enabling them to keep functioning even as the war advanced. Today, many of those hospitals are damaged, destroyed, or abandoned. Over the past three months, hospitals in cities such as Kostiantynivka, Mezhova, and Sviatohirsk have ceased to operate. Since 2022, MSF teams have been forced to leave six hospitals and ambulance bases, and to withdraw from a number of mobile clinic locations due to the proximity or direct strikes from shelling and bombardments.

“Many people are forced to evacuate on foot, walking 15–20 kilometers across rough terrain under drone strikes, often through fields which may have landmines, relying on sticks or crutches,” says Dr. Afanasiev. “Most are people who are elderly, aged 60 to 70 and up, and already weakened by untreated chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, or asthma, as well as malnutrition and anemia.”

Conditions in the shelters vary: some are set up in tents with rows of camp beds; others are housed in former schools, cultural centers, dormitories, or train stations.

MSF mobile clinic teams are seeing patients who have gone months without essential medications for conditions. Many patients arrive with fractures and shrapnel wounds that were left to heal untreated. Some arrive with open, infected wounds with maggots. Others reach transit centers experiencing chest pains or other symptoms due to the stress, which may indicate heart attacks. Many also have pneumonia and acute asthma symptoms.

“Two bombs fell on my house,” says Liubov Cherniakova, 72, sitting on her bed in a crowded shelter. She comes from a village near Kurakhove. “I ran out, fell into a hole, and couldn’t get up. Hera—that’s the name of my dog—came back for me, pulled me by the collar, bit and licked me to bring me to my senses. When I opened my eyes, I saw how happy she was that I was alive.”

Even after leaving frontline areas, people do not feel safe in these transit centers. Cities serving as evacuation hubs are themselves frequently targeted by drone and missile attacks. Pavlohrad, where the large transit centers closest to the front line are located, is repeatedly bombed. Most displaced people continue their journeys further west, with brief stays in the centers.