Kharkiv
Ukraine

Guillaume Mongeau
MSF doctor

The situation in the city of Kharkiv is currently very precarious. There is constant fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces, especially on the eastern side of the city, where shelling goes on day and night.

Among those who remained in the city, and who, for the most part, took refuge in the underground stations, there are many elderly people who are simply physically unable to leave the city.

Many of the people who took shelter in these stations go out during the day to visit their families or to return to their homes and head back to the stations at night to protect themselves from the bombardments. But we also met several people who simply never leave the stations and have been staying there permanently for several weeks already.

At night, several stations are particularly crowded, tents and makeshift beds are set up everywhere, which means that the sanitary conditions in these stations are not always ideal.

Our teams run mobile clinics in five Kharkiv metro stations. Through these mobile clinics we provide primary health care, especially for chronic diseases such as hypertension or diabetes, as well as for infections, particularly respiratory infections. If people express the need for it, we also offer psychological support.

And we try as much as possible to offer general support in the stations, with basic items such as microwaves to heat the food, cleaning products to clean the station and water filters to allow people to have access to drinking water at night.

With the constant bombardments in Kharkiv, the main issue facing our team is of course security, which means that we must carefully plan each movement and also that our trips must be made as quickly as possible.