MSF Medicalised train in Ukraine, war wounded patients
War in Ukraine

Data and patient accounts reveal consistent indiscriminate attacks on civilians in Ukraine

Medical data and accounts from patients evacuated on the Doctors Without Borders (MSF) medical referral train show that the war in Ukraine is being conducted with an outrageous lack of care to distinguish and protect civilians.

Over 40 per cent of the war-wounded on the train have been elderly people and children with blast wounds, traumatic amputations, shrapnel and gunshot wounds. This points to a lack of respect for civilian protection, a serious violation of international humanitarian law.  

Between 31 March and 6 June, MSF medically evacuated 653 patients by train from war-affected areas in the east to hospitals in safer parts of the country. On the 20- to 30-hour journey, nurses and doctors monitored patients and provided care to keep them stable. Many people shared their harrowing experiences with the MSF staff.

MSF, Doctors Without Borders, War in Ukraine, Medical Trains
The medical team inside the intensive care unit (ICU) of the MSF medical train monitor and stabalise a seriously war-wounded patient during a journey from Pokvrosk in eastern Ukraine, to Lviv in western Ukraine. The journey takes approximately 20 hours. Since 31 March, we have transported more than 600 patients. 
Andrii Ovod
I was on my way to the toilet when an explosion happened. I lost consciousness and fell. Once I came around, my face was covered in dry blood. I had an open arm fracture and must have also broken my nose when I fell. I was alone and in pain, screaming for help but no one heard me. a 92-year-old woman from Lyman, Donetsk region in Ukraine

“Our patients’ wounds and the stories they tell show unquestionably the shocking level of suffering the indiscriminate violence of this war is inflicting on civilians,” said Christopher Stokes, MSF emergency coordinator. “Many patients on the MSF train were wounded by military strikes that hit civilian residential areas. Although we cannot specifically point to an intention to target civilians, the decision to use heavy weaponry en masse on densely populated areas means that civilians are inescapably, and are therefore knowingly, being killed and wounded.”

From the accounts of patients, several consistent and harrowing themes emerged:

  • civilians have been shot at while evacuating or attacked while trying to leave war zones;
  • indiscriminate bombing and shelling have killed and maimed people living and sheltering in residential areas; 
  • elderly people have been brutalised, directly attacked, and their particularly vulnerable status completely overlooked by attacking forces; and
  • the types of wounds are often extensive and horrific and appear to affect all, indiscriminately affecting people, whether male or female, young or old.    
MSF Medicalised train in Ukraine, war-wounded patients

Of more than 600 patients transported and cared for on MSF’s medical train over two months, 355 were injured as a direct result of the war. The overwhelming majority of these patients suffered blast injuries. And 11 per cent of war-related trauma patients were younger than 18, and 30 per cent older than 60. People referred on the train are mostly either long-term hospitalised patients or recent war-wounded who need post-operative care following traumatic injuries.

“I was on my way to the toilet when an explosion happened. I lost consciousness and fell. Once I came around, my face was covered in dry blood. I had an open arm fracture and must have also broken my nose when I fell. I was alone and in pain screaming for help but with no one heard me. Later, a volunteer found me and spent two days trying to call an ambulance that would get me into a hospital,” a 92-year-old woman from Lyman, Donetsk region, recounted. 

MSF Medicalised train in Ukraine
Video

Doctors on Rails - MSF Medicalised train in Ukraine

MSF's medical train transports patients from hospitals areas near to the heavy fighting in the east of Ukraine to hospitals further west. Since 31 March 2022 we have transported more than 600 patients. 
MSF
As in all conflicts, we call on all armed groups to respect international humanitarian law (IHL) and abide by their obligations to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, allow people to flee to safety, and allow for the safe and timely evacuation of the sick and wounded. Dr Bertrand Draguez, MSF president

Blast injuries caused 73 per cent of the war-related trauma cases, with 20 per cent caused by shrapnel or gunshots and the rest by other violent incidents. More than 10 per cent of war-trauma patients had lost one or more limbs, the youngest just six years old. 

MSF patients and their caretakers on the train tell unimaginable stories of children, men and women trapped in conflict, bombed in shelters, attacked during evacuations and seriously injured in explosions, by bombs, gunshots, or by mines and shrapnel. Some patients report being injured in their homes. Others came under heavy weapons fire as they tried to travel to safer areas. Most patients we talked to when designating who is responsible for their injuries pointed at Russian and Russian-backed military forces. 
 

MSF, Doctors Without Borders, War in Ukraine, Medical Trains
A severely war-wounded patient is moved from an ambulance stretcher to a bed inside the intensive care unit (ICU) of the MSF medical train, which transports war wounded and seriously ill people from eastern Ukraine to Lviv, in western Ukraine, where they can receive the specialsed care that they need. 
Andrii Ovod

“As in all conflicts, MSF calls on all armed groups to respect international humanitarian law (IHL) and abide by their obligations to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure, allow people to flee to safety, and allow for the safe and timely evacuation of the sick and wounded. In addition, we call for humanitarian access to be able to assist people no matter where they are. In Ukraine, at minimum, we see indiscriminate attacks on civilians, so our call is particularly urgent," said Dr Bertrand Draguez, MSF president.

 

MSF first worked in Ukraine in 1999. Since 24 February 2022, we have significantly scaled up and reoriented our activities to respond to the needs created by the war in Ukraine. This includes a medical referral train that receives patients from hospitals near to the frontlines in the east that are receiving or preparing to receive influxes of newly wounded patients and transfers them to hospitals in the west of the country, where they can continue their treatment. The medical train is run in collaboration with Ukraine's Ministry of Health and National Railways.

Between 31 March and 6 June, MSF transported and cared for 653 patients on the train. In the east and south, MSF also runs an ambulance referral system. While MSF provides medical assistance in the regions affected by heavy fighting in the east and south of Ukraine and on the referral train, we do not have direct access to the places most of our patients come from and where fighting is most brutal.

MSF is also providing medical and humanitarian assistance to people displaced into other areas of Ukraine, including providing mental healthcare, treating survivors of sexual violence, running mobile clinics and donating medical and other supplies to hospitals. Surgical teams are also assisting in hospitals in the east and south, where MSF provides ambulance referrals between hospitals. Our teams also provide humanitarian assistance to people from Ukraine in neighbouring Belarus, Poland, Russia and Slovakia.

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