On 23 August, 18 people were travelling to work on public transport in the morning when they came under fire from drones in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Six wounded people were taken to the nearest local hospital, where a medical team from Médecins Sans Frontières, together with local doctors, provided them with assistance.
Read also: Deputy Chief Coordinator of Médecins Sans Frontières in Ukraine Andriy Slavutskyi: Our task is to support access to decent medicine
“The morning of 23 August began with the sound of shelling and the realisation that it would be a difficult day,” recalls Maria Khvalbota, an anaesthesiologist with Médecins Sans Frontières. “After the attack on the bus, six patients with injuries of varying severity were brought to us. They were terrified — their hands were shaking as they described how the drone had been ‘hunting’ them. They told me how they had jumped out of broken windows and doors and run across fields to save themselves.”
“All of them had multiple injuries, hematomas, bruises, and abrasions. We performed primary surgical treatment of their wounds. Some patients required intravenous sedation as we removed metal and glass fragments from their soft tissues. One patient was in moderate to severe condition with a traumatic brain injury, complex eye injury, and a broken lower jaw. Sadly, another patient was reported to have died at the scene. The drone hit him directly, causing traumatic amputation of the head.”
“After that, his wife came to our hospital,” Maria continues. “She was in a deep psychological crisis, completely devastated and didn’t know what to do. We provided her with emergency medical care to calm her down.”
The front line in Ukraine continues to move closer to the Dnipropetrovsk region, making life increasingly dangerous for local residents. Access to medical care in these areas is extremely limited. According to local volunteers, more than 200,000 people need to be evacuated from the conflict areas in the Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Every day, people with limited mobility, elderly people and families with children are forced to flee, often with only the bare essentials. They all need urgent and ongoing support, including social and medical assistance.
Médecins Sans Frontières medical teams continue to support hospitals located near the front line. Since the beginning of 2025, Médecins Sans Frontières teams have treated more than 7,400 patients in emergency departments. About 60% of the injuries they encountered were war-related.
Read also: “Doctors Without Borders”: In Donetsk Oblast, the number of emergency medical assistance requests has increased by 30% over the past six months
