Olga Zhuchenko spoke with Jake Tapper of CNN from her hospital bed in Lviv, Ukraine. (CNN)
Fighting and violence in Ukraine are so fruitful that hospitals face a flood of civilians, often arriving with wounds alien to younger doctors. And like other conflicts, including in Syria, the Russians are targeting these facilities, damaging 279 so far and destroying 19 more, according to Ukraine’s health minister.
CNN’s Jake Tapper visited a hospital in the west of the country, where patients from the east and south had to travel hundreds of miles to seek safe treatment.
Olga Zhuchenko survived seven bombs that hit her neighborhood in the Luhansk region, but is now in a hospital bed and may never walk again.
“I lost everything. I lost my apartment, my property, my health, “she told CNN through an interpreter. “We did not expect to see him. We have always considered the Russians to be a fraternal people. We never hoped they would exterminate us like that. “
Nearly two months after the conflict, it became clear that the attacks on civilian neighborhoods – such as the one suffered by Zhuchenko – were not accidental, CNN reported.
“The facts lead to only one conclusion. The Russians deliberately slaughter Ukrainians. “Mothers and fathers, children, grandparents,” Tapper continued.
Meanwhile, American doctors traveled to Ukraine, hoping to offer help and experience gained during their stay in the Middle East.
“We wanted to share information from our experience in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” Dr John Holcomb, a professor of surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, told Tapper at the hospital.
The injuries inflicted by Ukrainian civilians are so severe that local doctors are confronted with cases different from any they have ever seen.
“The injury we have now is incredible,” said Dr. Hnat Herich, head of surgery at a Ukrainian hospital. He has seen an influx of thousands of patients and has a message to share.
“I want the world to know that it needs to know that the Russian forces, they are not fighting the Ukrainian army, they are fighting the Ukrainian people,” he told Tapper. “They kill civilians, they kill children, they destroy our country.
And the war hurts Ukrainians in many ways, except with bullets and bombs.
Alder Akinshin was forced to celebrate her 45th birthday from a hospital bed after suffering a serious car accident while fleeing the Kharkiv region with her husband and son.
“We had a happy life. “Everything was perfect and then everything changed very dramatically,” she told Tapper through an interpreter.
After hiding in a basement for a month amid the relentless shelling, Akinshin and her family decided to get in their car and flee when the building next door collapsed. She had not slept for two days and suffered a horrific car accident.
“We were so scared, especially our child, that we couldn’t stay any longer,” she said.
Now Akinshin is not sure that he will ever be able to return to his old city or his old life.
“The school where my child is studying has been destroyed, but I hope that if our house remains safe, we will return, we will build again. Our neighbor will rebuild our village, our city. “I love my Ukraine so much, I would like to live only here in Ukraine,” she said.
Add Comment