Pavlohrad, Ukraine, Feb 13 (AFP\/APP): At a hospital a short drive from the scene of fierce fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, two orderlies carefully carry an injured soldier onto a medical bus.<\/p>\n
Four others soon join him on individual beds on board, while another four walking wounded using crutches limp up the steps to their seats.<\/p>\n
The vehicle — emblazoned with sunflowers, the national symbol of Ukraine — is becoming a familiar sight on the main roads to and from the frontline in the east.<\/p>\n
From the outside, it looks like any other long-distance coach criss-crossing the barren countryside.<\/p>\n
It is however packed with the latest medical equipment and machines to help keep the most seriously injured troops alive.<\/p>\n
The volunteer paramedics on board mostly see devastating injuries caused by mines, bullets and shrapnel, said Dmytro Sachkov, a trainee doctor whose studies were interrupted by the conflict last year.<\/p>\n
The soldiers have already been evacuated from the battlefield by the military to local hospitals but need moving for longer-term or more specialist treatment elsewhere.<\/p>\n
“We’ve never lost a patient on the way to hospital,” said the final-year medical student, 24, who goes by the call-sign “Dok”.<\/p>\n
“Every day we get a call out. In one week, we’ve brought out 62 people,” he told AFP.<\/p>\n
The coach is operated by the Ukrainian Hospitallers “medical battalion”, which was set up in 2014 when Russia annexed Crimea.<\/p>\n
The organisation and its fleet of small donated ambulances are staffed by volunteer paramedics from Ukraine and around the world.<\/p>\n
In the disputed Donbas region, the Hospitallers coach often makes multiple round trips in a single day to and from hospitals near the frontline.<\/p>\n
“It depends on the intensity of the fighting on the frontline,” said Sachkov.<\/p>\n
He is wearing military fatigues with a first aid kit — rather than a holster — strapped to his leg.<\/p>\n
“We’re ready to make as many trips as possible but this is not a usual evacuation vehicle and it’s difficult to drive it on bad roads.”<\/p>\n
Heading west towards Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region, the coach inches its way slowly over railway crossings.<\/p>\n
It dodges potholes to give its fragile passengers the smoothest ride possible.<\/p>\n
The five most seriously injured lie under gold foil insulating blankets, hooked up to machines monitoring their vital signs.<\/p>\n
Yuriy Popenko, 37, was wounded by a mine near the city of Bakhmut that Russian troops have been trying to seize for over six months.
\nBoth his heels are shattered.<\/p>\n
At the back of the coach, Vasyl Yavtushenko’s face is peppered with blast fragments and his hands are heavily bandaged.<\/p>\n
“I have very deep wounds,” he explained.<\/p>\n
“If the doctors sew me up, it will be quicker but I think that rehabilitation will take up to a month.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Pavlohrad, Ukraine, Feb 13 (AFP\/APP): At a hospital a short drive from the scene of fierce fighting between Ukrainian and Russian troops in eastern Ukraine, two orderlies carefully carry an injured soldier onto a medical bus. Four others soon join him on individual beds on […]<\/p>\n
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