‘We have a rule when we hear the sirens: if you’ve started operating, you don’t stop’: 24 hours with doctors on the Ukrainian frontline
www.theguardian.com
Sat, 22 Feb 2025 07:00:06 +0200
Like the soldiers they battle to save, combat medics in Ukraine are under constant attack.
Three years after the invasion, one NHS doctor bears witnessThe frontline here is cold, hard, true war.
My comrades and I had more than 40 bombs dropped on us by drones over two hours.
You cant hide from drones in a trench, but you cant outrun them either.
Your only hope to live is to zigzag, to be cleverer than the drone.A gaunt 28yearold former IT worker sits patiently beneath a window barricaded with sandbags, awaiting his turn on the operating table, cloaked in dust.
Now an infantryman in the Ukrainian armys Third Assault Brigade, Sasha not his real name has shrapnel embedded in his shoulder after the Russian assault on his foxhole.
When you hear a drone, you run as fast as you can and see if you can reach any trees, he says.
If youre out in the open, you try to get the drone behind you, so it wont destroy your face.
Its not panic, this running its a professional response.
You know what you have to do to save your life and you do it.
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