Blacked-out ambulances and bomb-cratered roads: On the night shift with Ukraine’s military medics

As night draws across the eastern front medical teams wait nervously behind the frontline.

They know it will be a busy night – every night is busy these days as Russia intensifies its attacks in the Donbas.

The chief medic, Yaroslav, takes the first call of the shift.

His face is filled with concern as he’s informed in the voice message that there are many casualties. Some are walking wounded, others are not so lucky.

His team is quickly on its way. Climbing aboard their ambulance and heading out into the inky night, there is no time to lose and they need to move fast.

As they race towards the rendezvous point, we film with a night-vision camera, any unnecessary light could draw enemy fire.

This is dangerous work. The deadly drone and artillery war is all around them.

The threat is now so bad the team prefers, when they can, to work only at night. In daylight the risk of being targeted by Russian drones is often too great.

A few kilometres from the frontline and the team comes to a stop.

Hidden by the dark they try to call the injured soldiers’ unit to tell them they are waiting in an exposed location but there’s no answer.

“Sometimes there is shelling and they can’t evacuate from the position,” says medic Valeri.

Out of the gloom the first casualties eventually arrive for the handover. All of them look gaunt and shellshocked. The grime and terror of this grinding trench war is etched into their faces.

One of the soldiers tells me how they were injured.

“They destroyed the position. With drones they completely destroyed it – thank god we survived. One person died but I was blown away by the explosion. I was lucky.”

Ukraine is facing a shortage of manpower and the country is having to recruit older men for its defence.

As Misha waits for first aid he tells me he’s in pain: “The shrapnel is sticking out of my leg. My leg is swollen and my other leg hurts too, I probably twisted it.”

‘Shells crash around us’

With the men patched up and on their way for more medical treatment, the evacuation team is soon responding to a new call.

Along broken roads and bomb-cratered dirt tracks they bump along through the night. As they arrive at a second evacuation point it’s clear we are now much closer to the frontline.

The sound of guns is deafening and as we wait anxiously in open fields shells crash around us.

Eventually the casualty arrives – there’s much more urgency in this extraction

Andriy is suffering from serious shrapnel wounds and he’s clearly in shock as he’s stretchered into the waiting ambulance.

The medics set up a drip and only once he’s stabilised can they start to drive.

The windows have been blacked out, which means they can work with more light, and as they go his condition is carefully monitored.

Read more:
On the trail of British luxury cars still entering Russia
Zelenskyy begins key US trip with visit to ammo factory

Yaroslav explains what they have done as we start to move.

“The intravenous line wasn’t working so we had to move it so we had access to his vein.

“This way, if everything goes wrong we have the ability to deliver medicine to help him. He’s okay, he’s stable. He’s heavily wounded but stable.”

Andriy soon arrives at a medical facility – he’ll later undergo surgery – and the medical evacuation team will soon head back into the dark to treat and extract more casualties.

Every night it seems the carnage and destruction of this war gets worse.