Ukraine Emergency

Civils fuyant Irpin. 9 mars 2022 © Jean-Pierre Amigo/MSF

In late February 2022, attacks by Russian forces on multiple cities in Ukraine have since led nearly 6 million people to become refugees.

As war spreads throughout Ukraine, people are fleeing the country. They are exhausted, scared and many are suffering from hunger, dehydration or hypothermia. Our teams in Ukraine have had to suspend our usual medical activities.

We are now scaling up our emergency response in Ukraine and in neighbouring countries. In addition to Ukraine, we have teams responding in Poland, Moldova, Hungary, Slovakia, Russia and Belarus.

Find out our latest activities in response - 17 february 2023

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Ukraine

Between enemy lines: the destruction of healthcare in Ukraine

To date, MSF teams have only been allowed entry into regions controlled by Ukrainian forces, which means they have witnessed the destruction caused by the war in Ukrainian-held territory only. Despite MSF's efforts to obtain permission to access regions under Russian occupation, this access has not been granted; MSF has therefore been unable to observe the situation in areas under Russian military control.

Ukraine

Ukraine: MSF helps survivors of Dnipro blast

In the three days since an attack on a residential building in central Dnipro killed at least 40 people, teams from international medical organisation Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) have been providing survivors with medical care, psychological first aid and essential relief items. In addition to those known to have died in the blast, 75 people were injured and around 30 people remain missing.

Patients with psychiatric and neurological disorders, just after disembarking the MSF medical , wait to be transferred to hospitals in Kyiv. MSF evacuated them from an overcrowded mental health facility in Kharkiv city, eastern Ukraine. ©MSF/Hussein Amri

Ukraine

Patients with psychiatric and neurological conditions evacuated

Over 200 patients with neurological and psychiatric conditions have been evacuated from an overcrowded hospital in Kharkiv city, eastern Ukraine, to facilities in Kyiv on the MSF medical train. Before their evacuation, patients had faced extremely challenging conditions, with some having to sleep on the floor, with insufficient access to quality of care and hygiene.

The medical team inside the intensive care unit of the MSF medical train monitors and stabilises a severely war-wounded patient during the journey from Pokrovsk to Lviv.

Ukraine

MSF calls on all armed groups to respect international humanitarian law

Medical data and accounts from patients evacuated on MSF's medical referral train show that the war in Ukraine is being conducted with an outrageous lack of care to distinguish and protect civilians.

Des personnes déplacées de l'est de l'Ukraine assistent à une séance de psychoéducation dans la ville d'Ivano-Frankivsk, dans le sud-ouest du pays. Mai 2022

Ukraine

"Their symptoms are a normal response to an abnormal situation”

Here, Raul Manarte, mental health activity manager for MSFin Ukraine, describes how MSF is addressing mental health needs in these areas where many people have fled to from areas closer to the front lines.

Les équipes MSF apportent un soutien en santé mentale aux personnes qui ont fui les bombardements intenses dans le sud et l'est de l'Ukraine. Mai, 2022

Ukraine

Mental health needs grow after 100 days of war in Ukraine

After 100 days of war in Ukraine (3 June), MSF has been providing mental health support in shelters for displaced people, at mobile clinics in remote villages, and in urban metro stations.In the past months, MSF has observed that the war, especially the indiscriminate shelling and military occupation of certain areas, has caused serious psychological issues for the men, women and children.

Vue d'une clinique mobile gérée par MSF devant un abri pour personnes déplacées dans l'oblast de Dnipropetrovska. Mai, 2022

Ukraine

MSF supports people fleeing conflict in eastern and south-eastern Ukraine

With hundreds of thousands of people having fled heavy fighting in eastern and south-eastern Ukraine, MSF teams are expanding medical and psychological support to vulnerable people living in shelters in and around Dnipro and Zaporizhzhia.

Dr Christou, MSF International President, during the interview © MSF Luxembourg

Christos Chistou, Président International de Médecins Sans Frontières ©MSF/Pierre-Yves Bernard

Ukraine

Christos Christou

"No victim of war should be left behind neither in Ukraine nor beyond"

Acknowledging the generosity of Luxembourgers in the face of the Ukrainian conflict, Dr Christou recalled "the importance of continuing to support not only this cause, but also the organisation's work in other conflicts, notably in Afghanistan, Yemen, Syria and even Iraq".

Elena, 35, and her son Kirill, 6, are examined by Kelly and Kirill in Kharkiv, Ukraine, on 11 April 2022.

Ukraine

In Kharkiv’s underground stations with MSF’s mobile clinics

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, Kharkiv, the second largest city in the country, has been severely affected by the Russian offensive. While many fled the city the conflict, those who stayed have taken refuge in underground stations to escape the incessant bombing. MSF teams offer primary healthcare consultations in several stations.

Les demandeurs d'asile continuent d'être repoussés illégalement aux frontières terrestres et maritimes de l'Europe. © MSF

Ukraine

EU double standard to assistance and protection

Since the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we have seen a positive response from European states and leaders, who have adopted a number of measures to ensure that people fleeing Ukraine are provided with border assistance, safe passage, access to health, school and work.

Civils fuyant Irpin. 9 mars 2022 © Jean-Pierre Amigo/MSF

Ukraine

Finding the most useful role – MSF’s response in and around Ukraine

“The severity, scale and speed of the war in Ukraine have created simply enormous needs and suffering,” says Dr Joanne Liu, an experienced paediatrician and member of MSF’s emergency response team who is just back from Ukraine.

February 2019: An MSF staff member stands outside the abandoned house where MSF operates a mobile clinic in the village of Vodiane. Ukraine. © Nico Dauterive/ MSF

Ukraine

MSF team witnesses hospital bombing in Mykolaiv

On 4 April, a four-person MSF team visited Mykolaiv to meet with city and regional health authorities. At around 3.30 pm local time, as the MSF team entered the city’s oncology hospital, which has been treating the wounded since the beginning of the war, the area around the hospital came under fire.

A woman walks past a building damaged by a bombing in Mariupol, Ukraine, Sunday, March 13, 2022. Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo

Ukraine

Life under bombing in Mariupol: How long will this disaster continue?

Sasha, a long-time staff member of Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) from Mariupol, Ukraine, describes life in the city as it was encircled and bombarded by Russian forces. For security reasons, he is using only his first name.

Farewells at Kyiv station. Ukraine, 8 March 2022 © Jean-Pierre Amigo

Ukraine

From Ukraine: displaced twice and on the road again

As dawn broke on February 24 in Kyiv, I woke to the sound of explosions and the wails of air raid sirens...

UKRAINE. Pisky. 22 February 2022. A school destroyed during the fighting. © Lorenzo Meloni/Magnum Photos

Ukraine

Humanitarian emergency in Ukraine: A race against time

Lviv/ Brussels - Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) fears that there is an urgent race against time to get the right medical supplies to the right places before aid can no longer reach militarily encircled towns and cities.

Mobile medical units sent into Ukraine by MSF to provide medical assistance to people trying to cross into Poland to escape the war in their country - Polish-Ukrainian border, 09 March 2022

Christina Psarra, coordinatrice MSF en Pologne © MSF/Oliver Barth

Ukraine

Christina Psarra

MSF mobile clinics arrive in Ukraine

MSF emergency teams have been deployed in all of Ukraine's neighbouring countries. This is the testimony of Christina Psarra, MSF coordinator in Poland, who explains the arrival of the mobile medical units in different regions of the war-torn country.

UKRAINE. Mariupol. 24 February 2022. A civilian house destroyed by a rocket.

Ukraine

MSF staff in Mariupol: "The humanitarian disaster continues"

In this audio testimony, MSF staff highlight the enormous difficulties that people in the besieged area of Mariupol face in obtaining health care and accessing medicines.

View of Odessa from a car driven by MSF staff. 7 March, 2022 © MSF

Ukraine

In Odessa, “everyone is preparing for the worst”

Carla Melki, emergency coordinator for Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF), has just returned from the port city of Odessa in southern Ukraine.

Lviv. 27 February 2022. Hundreds of people trying to escape the on-going conflict in Ukraine wait for a train to Poland at the central train station in Lviv.

Ukraine

Emergency Ukraine: A race against time for survival

Over ten days into the conflict and its escalation, we are beginning to see the impact on civilians. A full-scale war has broken out in many areas, making travel difficult, dangerous or simply impossible.

Late-night loading of MSF emergency medical supplies onto a train at Lviv station, to be dispatched as rapidly as possible to hospitals in Kyiv. 5 March 2022

Ukraine

MSF rushes emergency medical supplies from Ukraine warehouse to Kyiv by train

MSF's first international supplies had arrived in Ukraine, and had been unloaded in the warehouse, just a few hours before.