Moas staff evacuate 80% of critically wounded soldiers from region’s battlefield, where medics say morale is falling

It is around midnight in Donbas, eastern Ukraine, and the first emergency ambulance of the night is charging 75mph down a single carriageway road from the frontline. Inside, under the care of two watchful medics, is Ihor, an unconscious soldier wounded from the battle of Chasiv Yar, with shrapnel, perhaps from a mine, in his abdomen.

The medics’ task is to complete the last leg of evacuation from the battlefield, which involves Ihor and tonight’s most serious casualties being taken to a hospital in the safe central city of Dnipro. Four ambulances are following on a bumpy high-speed run that takes three hours down roads largely deserted because of the 9pm curfew, the full single beds creaking and bouncing as they go.