Since MSF teams refurbished hospitals in Dnipro and the Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions in 2022 — enabling them to keep functioning as the war advanced — many of these hospitals have been damaged, destroyed, or abandoned. The proximity of shelling and bombardment has forced MSF teams to leave six hospitals and ambulance bases, and withdraw from a number of mobile clinic locations — disrupting people’s access to care and putting further strain on functioning facilities as needs continue to rise.

In addition to leaving thousands with war wounds, including amputations, the war has disrupted the continuity of care for patients with chronic conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. It has also increased the need for mental health support as people grapple with ongoing violence and isolation. 

Near the front lines in the east and south, where the health care system is struggling to cope with both emergency and longer-term medical needs caused by the war, MSF is seeing patients with traumatic injuries from shelling, bomb and shrapnel blasts, and landmines. At the same time, Ukraine’s weakened health system is also coping with emerging and exacerbated needs, including care for patients with non-communicable diseases and people injured in car accidents.

In Kherson, MSF helped set up an emergency department in one of the city’s major hospitals, where our teams also support the intensive care unit (ICU) and traumatology surgery. In 2025, our teams admitted 12,904 patients to the emergency department, carried out 1,053 surgeries, and admitted 552 patients to the ICU.

Near the front lines in the east and south, MSF ambulance teams evacuate patients from overburdened facilities and transport them to hospitals in safer areas in central and western Ukraine for appropriate and specialized care. MSF currently has seven ambulances and one dedicated four-patient ambulance truck, which are used to refer patients in critical condition. In 2025, our ambulances referred 10,722 patients, 60 percent of whom had war-related injuries.

MSF teams are supporting seriously injured post-surgery patients with specialized physiotherapy and post-operative care, as well as psychological support. Our teams also provide training on early rehabilitation. Without adequate, early post-surgery care, patients’ recovery may remain incomplete or take much longer than necessary, with potentially severe complications affecting their lives and weighing on an overwhelmed system. 

In Cherkasy, MSF runs an early rehabilitation project for war-wounded patients. Our teams in Ministry of Health hospitals provide timely, immediate support to post-operative patients with war-related trauma using a multidisciplinary approach entailing physiotherapy, psychological support, and nursing care. In 2025, MSF provided comprehensive early rehabilitation care to 795 patients.

In 2023, MSF started providing specialized psychotherapeutic services for people experiencing war-related PTSD symptoms in Vinnytsia, where MSF offers psychological sessions for both patients and members of their support network at a custom designed mental health center. Our specialists provide patients with techniques to help reduce and prevent the worsening of symptoms, improve coping skills and interpersonal functionality, and decrease the consequences of traumatic stress.

A specially trained mental health promotion team conducts community engagement and mobilization activities through partnerships with key organizations and other health providers in Vinnytsia. We also train health staff including doctors, psychologists, and social workers from partner organizations.

MSF mobile clinic teams comprising doctors, nurses, clinical officers, psychologists, and health promoters are supporting communities by providing medical consultations, psychological support, medical and non-medical donations, and training for health care staff to improve the capacity of the health care system. 

Between 2022 and 2025, MSF teams in Ukraine provided more than 370,000 outpatient consultations through mobile clinics serving shelters and communities with limited or no access to health care, often due to the destruction of medical facilities and pharmacies in the war. 

Prior to the full-scale invasion, MSF ran a significant program supporting the Ministry of Health in tuberculosis (TB) care, as Ukraine has had a high burden of the disease for years. TB can make a remarkable resurgence in war zones, as the violence can break down TB control programs. MSF has been conducting active screenings in parts of Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, where there has been a high historical incidence of TB and where active screening programs have collapsed or ceased to function.