Ukraine
In 2023, as the war in Ukraine remained intense, Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) supported the health authorities by filling criticalgaps in care, particularly in areas close to the frontlines.
Our activities since the beginning of the war
- Medical referrals and evacuation by MSF ambulances.
- Supporting the emergency care and intensive care unit as well as supporting the surgical capacity of hospitals near the frontlines in Donetsk and Kherson regions.
- Physiotherapy and post-surgery care, and psychological support for war-wounded and injured patients, as well as physiotherapy trainings for staff in rehabilitation wards at hospitals supported by MSF teams.
- Mobile clinics teams providing primary healthcare, mental health counselling and psychoeducation services, as well as sexual and reproductive healthcare, particularly in areas close to the frontlines.
- Medical donations, including medical kits, equipment and medicine to hospitals and medical facilities with shortages.
- Trainings about secondary healthcare, including mass casualty trainings, pain management trainings and mental health to healthcare staff.
Our activities in 2023
outpatient consultations
individual mental health consultations
patients evacuated by medical train
In addition to providing emergency treatment, our teams developed rehabilitation projects, including care for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and physiotherapy, to cater to patients’ longer-term needs.
In 2023, we used specially designed medical trains to evacuate patients from frontline areas to safer places where they could receive the specialised care they needed. At the end of the year, this service wound down due to a shift in needs, while our ambulance service scaled up to focus on emergency care. Of the many thousands of patients we referred, almost 60 per cent were treated for violent trauma
Our teams supported the emergency department and surgical and intensive care units at Kostiantynivka and Selydove hospitals in Donetsk region until the end of 2023, when the frequency and proximity of shelling became too dangerous to safely maintain a continuous staff presence. However, we established and managed to maintain a constant presence in a hospital in Kherson city, supporting trauma and surgical care.
Mental health support remained a crucial component of our response. In September, we started providing specialised psychotherapeutic services for people experiencing PTSD symptoms at a new centre in Vinnytsia region. In a shelter run by local organisations in Zernove, Kharkiv region, we offered psychological care to people who had moved from Russia and Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
MSF also ran early rehabilitation projects for war-wounded people in Cherkasy, Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Sumy and Vinnytsia regions, implementing a multidisciplinary approach comprising physiotherapy, psychological support and nursing care.
We continued to run mobile clinics delivering a range of services, including basic healthcare, emergency surgery and treatment for chronic conditions, in Kharkiv, Dnipro, Mykolaiv, Kherson and Donetsk regions, where many patients were elderly people.
Throughout the year, we donated medicines and medical supplies to dozens of health facilities and conducted training for health professionals and first responders.