Medics and volunteers try to prop up Ukraine's health system

Medics and volunteers try to prop up Ukraine's health system When Russian bombs started falling on Kyiv, oncologist Nataliia Verovkina fled with her 10-year-old son. But once he was safe in Munich with his grandparents, she turned around and went back. Jennifer Rigby Reuters

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Verovkina joins a growing army of medical professionals and volunteers, from Ukraine and abroad, who have been working under desperate circumstances to keep the country's healthcare system going since the conflict started on Feb. 24.

The situation is particularly dire in besieged cities such as Mariupol and Kharkiv, where days of intense fighting and a lack of food and medicines threaten millions of civilians, humanitarian agencies said.

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Monday its teams were working round the clock to get supplies into Ukraine. Since March 5, it has delivered 90 tonnes of medical aid, including emergency surgery kits, ventilators and essential medicines.

But the WHO has been unable to reach a number of cities where more and more people have no access to medicines or care and it is lining up shipments for when they can be delivered, spokesperson Tarik Jarasevic said from the western city of Lviv.

In Kyiv, the cancer institute where Verovkina works is still functional, though its surgical departments are only providing emergency medical care and staff are concerned about the coming days as fighting escalates in the suburbs of the capital. ...