city at war.
Geoff: Nick, thanks for that
reporting.
Just beyond Ukraine's
frontlines, there is another
fight, to keep those injured on
the battlefield alive.
Resources are low, but the
volunteers who run a vast
network of emergency medical
services remain committed to
their lifesaving work.
Special correspondent willem
Marx and videographer Edward
Kiernan spent time with some of
these medics and filmed for the
first time the extraordinary
treatment given to soldiers in
the field.
They also saw firsthand the
difficulties ordinary Ukrainians
are having in accessing care in
the midst of war.
A warning, some of the images in
this story are disturbing.
Willem: In a country at war,
guardian angels appear in many
guises.
In this corridor, sorting
through a mess of medical
donations.
This is Kyiv hq for the
hospitallers, a volunteer group
of several hundred trained
combat medics.
These men and women getting
briefed are not all Ukrainian.
But they are all heading east to
help treat Ukraine's wounded on
its frontlines with Russia.
Yana zinkevych is the movement's
founder, and a member of
Ukraine's parliament.
>> More and more people are
coming.
Today we will be forming a new
team and it will be the 47th.
Willem: Her group tries to fill
the gaps in a medical system
under massive strain.
>> You need to understand that
when there are major military
activities in different places
at the same time, there is a
limited quantity of military
doctors, a limited quantity of
medical vehicles and a limited
quantity of other military
specialists.
Willem: In this makeshift
stockroom, final packing
preparations are underway.
In the shadow of a cathedral, to
the soundtrack of a choir, these
waiting ambulances will be
stocked and shipped out.
Days later and eight hours east
in the town of pavlograd, we
catch up with some hospitallers.
Each team assigned to serve at
frontline postings.
Not all of them proficient in
firearm safety.
[Gunfire]
Ihor is headed to a village on
the border between donetsk and
luhansk, two hours further east.
Authorities asked us not to
identify the location.
There, a local walk-in clinic is
now a military hospital, with
extra er space stationed
outside.
All of it empty when we arrive.
Just to give you an example of
how health care is being
delivered in this country,
during this conflict, this is a
mobile field hospital that has
been been parked inside a very
small, very quiet Ukrainian
village about 15 minutes drive
from frontline fighting, and two
civilian oncologist surgeons are
waiting here every day for
dozens of patients to be brought
in.
Cancer-specialist miroslav
dombrovych told us he'd been
here two weeks and had helped
stabilize many severely injured
soldiers.
>> We see bullet injuries to the
brain, bullet injuries to the
chest, abdomen, extremities.
Willem: As we talk, a radio
announces an emergency arrival.
>> I go to help our soldiers.
Thank you.
Willem: A hospitaller team
unloads 18 year old vasyl, a
volunteer soldier struck by
shelling at a nearby checkpoint.
He's badly hurt.
Inside the trauma room, miroslav
struggles with colleagues to
save his life.
They have lost two patients
already today.
Shrapnel has pierced vasyl's
skull.
They staunch the bleeding,
intubate.
Check his back.
Examine the wound.
Vasyl's cell phone starts to
ring, repeatedly.
It's taken outside with his
other belongings.
His head is wrapped.
A doctor requests transport to a
better equipped hospital.
Then they wait.
The long delay worries these
civilian doctors.
>> The wound is severe, the
prognosis is serious, but it
helps that the brain stem is not
damaged and is working.
Blood flow and saturation are
within the acceptable limits.
Geoff: With the ambulance en
route, doctors start treating
slava, who asked us not to film
his face.
He reached the same post as
vasyl the night before, was
caught in the same shell blast,
but has escaped with much
lighter injuries.
An ambulance finally arrives,
for the long journey to dnipro's
mechnikov hospital, where vasyl
still remains alive, but in a
coma.
Staff there treat soldiers and
civilians alike.
The vast majority victims of
Russian missiles.
Strikes on a train station in
kramatorsk on April 8th shocked
the world.
For 46 year old railway worker
evgeniy, they shattered his
wife.
>> Suddenly we heard the
explosions, cluster ones -- one,
two, three.
I am not sure if I jumped or
not, maybe I figured it out
late, I don't know, but when I
fell and was lying down I heard
an explosion again.
I turned my head, my hand was in
an unnatural position, my knees
bleeding like hell, and people
are running around.
Willem: Within two hours, he was
on the operating table.
>> I consider myself lucky.
My actual birthday is April 17.
So April 8 is now my second
birthday.
Willem: Natalia budiak is
responsible for east Ukraine's
heavily stressed healthcare
system, as hospitals like this
try to cope with the conflict's
many victims.
>> The system has been
reconfigured to provide patients
with the care they need as
quickly as possible.
So everyone tries to bring
patients as soon as possible to
the nearest hospital that can
provide care.
Willem: Ukraine recently created
a nationwide health service, the
only one to operate meaningfully
in a country mired in conflict.
>> These are things that have
never coexisted in the world, so
this is the first time we have
encountered this.
Were we ready for that? (Pause)
-- Were we ready for this?
You can't beat ready for war.
Russian bombs damage Ukrainian's
bodies but also destroy
Ukrainian buildings, pharmacies
included.
In the heavily shelled city of
chernihiv, northeast of Kyiv,
anatoliy grabovetz hunts for his
elderly mother's pain
medication.
>> There were no timely
deliveries of the medicine, and
when it all started the
pharmaceutical warehouse was
bombed.
Willem: At those stores still
standing, 66 year-old leonid
Kuzmin cannot get the drugs he
needs.
>> There are shortages of the
medicines in there.
Supplies are not regular.
Willem: British paramedic
Richard Whitmarsh is well versed
in emergencies, but he has never
seen desperation like this.
>> It is going be a crisis if
things don't change quite soon
because we've got all these
chronic illness needs that are
not being met.
Willem: He has come here as a
volunteer to help however he can
.
Dispensing a limited supply of
pills, but plenty of
professional advice to an
endless line of locals.
>> There seems to be a breakdown
somewhere.
I think the main focus is on the
security, the army, the war,
fighting the Russians, which is
understandable.
But there does seem to be a
missing element here in the
community, as you can see from
the crowd to my left now.
Willem: The catastrophic
consequences of this conflict
felt not just on the
battlefield.
Further pbs newshour, I'm willem
Marx in chernihiv, Ukraine.
Geoff: And a note, our coverage
of Ukraine is supported in
partnership with the pulitzer
center.