How MSF is responding
MSF teams remain in Ukraine, and we are currently seeking ways to adapt our response as the conflict situation evolves.
Our current emergency response
- We currently work with approximately 124 international staff in Ukraine and employ around 686 Ukrainian staff. More are joining the team every day. They work as medical staff (doctors, nurses); psychologists; logistics and administration; and management.
- We currently have teams based in Apostolove, Dnipro, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Lyman, Lviv, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Pokrovsk, Kochubeivka, Kostiantynivka, Kryvyi Rih, Uzhhorod, Kropyvnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr.
Assisting displaced people
Many displaced people are now sheltering in Lviv and other towns in western Ukraine. Often, they have left their homes with only what they can carry. Local volunteers and civil society organisations are working hard to help them, but conditions are harsh, with available accommodation already full to overflowing and temperatures as low as -10 at night. MSF is donating a large supply of cold weather items (sleeping bags, warm clothes, tents) to civil society organisations supporting displaced people and refugees.
Overlapping medical needs
So far, the focus has been on surgical, trauma, ER (Emergency Room) and ICU (Intensive Care Unit) equipment and drugs. But a broader picture of other key medical items is starting to emerge insulin for diabetes patients, medicines for patients with other chronic diseases such as asthma, hypertension, or HIV.
Medical train
The medicalised train run by MSF takes patients from overburdened Ukrainian hospitals close to active warzones to Ukrainian hospitals with more capacity that are further from active warzones.
The train began operating on 28 March 2022. In 2022, the medical train completed 79 trips, referring 2,558 patients; 700 of these patients were trauma cases, and 136 were admitted to the ICU carriage.
So far in 2023, the train has referred 216 patients on 11 trips. On all the train referrals, there are family members and caretakers of some patients too.
Regional responses