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Dear colleagues,
Immediately after Russia invaded the territory of Ukraine the editors published an appeal for Russia to withdraw the troops and decided to release a special issue dedicated to heroic Ukrainian doctors who save lives of the military and civilians.
We are building out the special issue gradually as soon the manuscripts are submitted. This issue is unique. It contains not only academic publications but also the materials, records and photos of the work of our colleagues in Ukraine.
War is not only a great tragedy but also a test on robustness of the whole healthcare system. The healthcare of the country in war, Ukraine, has mostly transferred into the battlefield medicine. This is a section of surgery and military medicine, which deals with combat injuries, their diagnosis, clinical picture and methods of treatment. Its primary task is to organize and perform emergency surgeries to the wounded soldiers during the stages of medical evacuation from the battlefield.
For nine months of war Ukrainian doctors have worked as shells rain down; they carry the wounded from the battlefields and perform surgeries without electricity and light. They endure hell and horror, but they keep on doing their best - saving lives.
We now know about doctors and nurses that voluntarily went in captivity to accompany wounded Ukrainian soldiers. It is known that Russia hold as PoW more than 100 military doctors, 70 from them were the staff of Hospital No 555 in the city of Mariupol. However, this number may be even bigger. Among the captives there were many women, a part of them was released as the result of a prisoner swap.
Ukrainian doctors have received support from hundreds of doctors and paramedics from other countries including colleagues from Israel. Already on 19th of March 2022 an Israeli field hospital was set up not far from Lviv. This hospital cost
$6,5 million with 17 ton of medical equipment delivered from Israel. It is an example of professional solidarity and international cooperation between Ukraine and Israel.
Many countries stepped up with financial, humanitarian, technological and informational aid. There is a continuous supply of medications, equipment and technologies. Thus, the German Bundeswehr medevaced via strategic aeromedical flights a total of 277 war-wounded Ukrainians to Germany over the summer 2022. United Kingdom is going to send 24 ambulances to Ukraine according to the foreign secretary James Cleverly.
We hope that the volumes of assistance will be increasing, so that the medics could embrace as many as possible patients in Ukraine.
Nevertheless, what is most important right now is to stop the aggression against the people of Ukraine. Therefore, we, on behalf of the medical community, demand:
We call for healthcare workers over the world to professional solidarity with Ukraine in rendering all kinds of medical assistance.
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