04/20/2022 09:59 (act 04/20/2022 13:36)
Doctors Without Borders treats people on a train bound for western Ukraine. Doctors also help where they can at Kharkiv metro stations. ©Genya SAVILOV / AFP
In Ukraine’s second-largest city of Kharkiv, hundreds of people seek shelter from Russian bombing in metro stations. Doctors Without Borders has office hours there.
According to its own information, the aid organization “Médecins Sans Frontières” (MSF – Doctors Without Borders) holds consultation hours for sick, frightened and traumatized people in Kharkiv metro stations.
Kharkiv metro stations as a place for medical appointments
There was a 24-hour bomb alert, the head of the operation, Michel-Olivier Lacharité, told headquarters in Geneva. Subway shafts are the safest place for people. “There are three subway lines in the city and practically every station is used.” About 100 people stayed at each station, most of them elderly and needy. At night, there are up to three times as many. “They have been in the cold and wet for more than 40 days, sleeping in tents,” Lacharité said. The city had around 1.8 million inhabitants before the war. About 350,000 are still there.
Doctors Without Borders in Ukraine
500 Doctors Without Borders mobile clinic appointments
MSF’s mobile clinics have already carried out more than 500 consultations. Because of the curfew, helpers moved through the tunnels from one station to another at night, according to Lacharité. Most people would have respiratory infections and high blood pressure. “Even in subway stations you can feel the vibrations of the bombing,” Lacharité reported. MSF provides psychological support to children and young people. They would be too afraid to leave. The longer the war lasts, the greater the risk of anxiety-related behavioral disorders.
“The cold, the lack of sleep, all this is nothing compared to war”
Lacharité cites Ludmilla, a 40-year-old mother who lives on the subway with her son. “The cold, the lack of sleep, all this is nothing compared to war,” she said, according to MSF. “At least we’re safe here.” She stayed in her apartment with her son as long as possible until a bomb fell nearby. “Mother, I don’t want to die,” said the son.