The humanitarian organization Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) this Wednesday described as “dramatic” the health situation in areas in Kherson (south of the country) recaptured by Ukrainian forces, from where their teams are trying to move patients to safer areas.
“The situation is dramatic because medical facilities have been destroyed in some communities,” said Christopher Stokes, MSF coordinator in the region, quoted by Ukraine’s Ukrinform news agency.
The population lives in “extremely precarious” conditions due to the lack of heating and other basic services, which the MSF official says will be exacerbated by the shortage of medicines and the fact that even pharmacies cannot function permanently.
Christopher Stokes recalled that the international organization’s teams began working in these areas shortly after they were recovered by Ukrainian troops and in “close cooperation” with the country’s health ministry.
According to the MSF coordinator, the situation of “extreme psychological pressure” experienced by the population during the Russian occupation – “you never knew what would happen to them the next day”, he explains – would leave its mark “for a long time” . in affected people.
MSF has already managed to remove about 250 patients from a psychiatric hospital who have been transferred to Odessa or to more western parts of Ukraine.
The city of Kherson was recaptured by Kiev in November, but is regularly hit by Russian bombardments.
Russian troops occupied the city of Kherson and the surrounding region shortly after the invasion of Ukraine began on February 24. When they got there, the city had a population of 300,000, a number that had dropped to 80,000 when it was recaptured.
Before the withdrawal of the Russian army, accompanied by several thousand civilians, the city’s basic infrastructure had been destroyed, according to local authorities.
Source: DN
