'We live in hell': Volunteer bus evacuates wounded Ukrainian troops
Send a link to a friend
[March 16, 2023]
(Reuters) - On a brightly painted bus that doubles as a
high-tech medical evacuation unit in Ukraine, Stasik lies on one of six
beds linked to blood pressure and heart monitors and intravenous drips
for patients who need them.
The 45-year-old soldier, who gave only his first name, lost his right
arm when a tank shell struck his position in fighting against Russian
forces in eastern Ukraine.
The arm has been amputated and his condition is stable, and now he and
nine other troops wounded in battle are on their way from a small
hospital in a town that cannot be named for security reasons to a larger
one in the central city of Dnipro.
There they will receive more advanced treatment and rehabilitation, but
the journey would be perilous for some without a team of medics on hand
to monitor their condition and administer painkillers and other drugs.
Six medics move up and down the narrow corridor between two rows of
three beds that run the length of the bus, which is part of Ukraine's
Hospitallers Medical Battalion that evacuates troops across Ukraine.
Four more wounded sit at the back.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/16/images/ads/current/llm_lda_ANIMAL_2023.png)
"This is really the start of something great," said Andrii Voloshin, 23,
referring to the "Avstriika Bus" - named after the military call sign of
an Austrian volunteer who worked on a similar coach before she was
killed in a traffic accident.
That vehicle was badly damaged in the crash, so another has been built
to replace it.
"We had no possibility before in Ukraine to deliver casualties in such
numbers between hospitals," he told Reuters. "It's important that we
relieve hospitals near the front line so they are not overloaded."
[to top of second column]
|
![](../images/031623PIX/news_q1.jpg)
A wounded Ukrainian soldier is evacuated
in a converted bus, operated by Ukrainian volunteer medics, from the
eastern frontline near Bakhmut to hospitals in the Dnipropetrovsk
region, in Ukraine March 15, 2023. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2023/Mar/16/images/ads/current/xamis_lda_ANIMAL_2023.png)
One side of the bus is covered with the giant painting of a woman's
face surrounded by sunflowers, and on the other are written the
words "For Every Life".
The initiative involves teams of volunteers rotating and spending
several weeks on call, ready for when soldiers need moving further
from the fighting.
It is a small part of a huge network of evacuation teams in Ukraine,
linking soldiers in trenches to small teams in rear positions, then
to field hospitals, small nearby facilities and eventually to large
centres in serious enough cases.
Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed and wounded on both
sides of the conflict since Russia launched its full-scale invasion
of Ukraine last February.
Stasik, who joked with a gold-toothed grin as the bus lurched over
potholed roads, said his days in the military were over now he had
lost an arm.
Asked whether he would miss his fellow soldiers as he attempts to
return to civilian life, the former sawmill worker became more
serious.
"On the front line you understand you can lose this person in a day
or two and you try not to have this emotional attachment.
"To tell you the truth it makes no sense to miss the guys, because
my comrades are dead. It's good that they are not in pain any more.
You will die and you either go to paradise or to hell. But we live
in hell here."
(Reporting by Mike Collett-White; Editing by Nick Macfie)
[© 2023 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.]This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content. |