MSF teams remained close to the frontline, delivering emergency medical treatment, while also expanding services in other regions to support long-term recovery, such as rehabilitation for trauma survivors, and mental health care.
As the war has evolved, we have adapted our response. In addition to providing essential trauma care in hospitals in Kherson, we ran mobile clinics and ambulance referrals in all regions along the frontline, which stretches for more than 1,000 kilometres.
Our teams evacuated patients from hospitals close to the frontlines, including war-wounded patients, and referred them to hospitals in safer areas through a fleet of 18 ambulances operating across Ukraine.
Some of the ambulances are equipped for intensive care support and are ran by a team of paramedics, doctors, and drivers. The ambulances have referred over 20,000 patients since 2023.
In Kherson city, an MSF medical team supported surgical and trauma activities. Medical teams ran triage and operating theatre activities and performed surgeries. Our staff also provided treatment during mass casualty events in the hospitals close to the frontline.
We sent donations of medical supplies and hygiene kits to medical facilities, and provided training support for emergency responses, managing a high influx of war wounded, decontamination, trauma, early physical rehabilitation and mental health.
Donations from MSF have also been used to restore hospitals damaged by shelling in Donetsk region, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
MSF mobile clinics provided basic healthcare services, psychological counselling and social services, sexual and reproductive health services, mental healthcare and health promotion.
Through these mobile clinics, we also provided medicines for people with chronic illnesses such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes, heart disease and epilepsy. Severely unwell patients were referred to hospitals.
Through our mobile clinics in the Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, we are now screening for tuberculosis.
Our teams provided mental health support through mobile clinics in areas where it’s hard for patients to access healthcare, particularly in rural areas and shelters for people displaced by the war.
In 2023, a dedicated centre for people experiencing war-related post-traumatic stress disorder was opened in Vinnytsia. There, we offered psychological sessions for patients and people in their support network.
Our specialists provided them with techniques to help reduce and prevent worsening of symptoms, increase coping skills, improve interpersonal functionality, and decrease the consequences of traumatic stress.
MSF teams supported seriously injured post-surgery patients with specialised physiotherapy and post-operative care in Cherkasy region and Odesa in order to aid in their longer term recovery.
Data and information from the International Activity Report 2024.
Our mobile teams screened for tuberculosis and offered treatment for chronic diseases, such as hypertension, mainly to elderly and vulnerable patients, many of whom had resorted to living in basements or shelters to escape the shelling. Our ambulances frequently responded in the aftermath of airstrikes, referring wounded patients to nearby hospitals.
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. In Pavlohrad, our teams provided mental health and basic healthcare for people fleeing the encroaching fighting in Pokrovsk and Kurakhove, Donetsk region. However, in April, MSF’s office in Pokrovsk was destroyed by a missile. Five people were injured in the attack, including an MSF staff member.
We also increased our mental health activities in 2024. We focused on treating post-traumatic stress disorder at our dedicated centre in Vinnytsia, and established a professional and community network to deliver trauma care for displaced people. We also expanded our support to reach people who have endured prolonged exposure to traumatic experiences, helping them manage their symptoms.
In Cherkasy and Odesa, MSF’s rehabilitation services comprised physiotherapy, mental health care, and nursing support for people who have recently had trauma surgery, including amputations.
We continued to send professionals and medical supplies to hospitals near the frontline to provide training and resources for mass-casualty influxes.
IN 2024
