Over the course of the past year, Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) teams in Kharkiv, Ukraine, supported displaced people and others without access to health care, reconstructed health care facilities, trained health care staff, and donated medical supplies to hospitals.
As the war escalated in February 2022, many residents of the Kharkiv region—including medical staff—fled to western Ukraine or left the country. Many people in rural villages and towns in the region fled into the city, seeking shelter in underground metro stations. The loss of health care workers, coupled with the massive medical needs related to the war, soon pushed the health care system to the brink.