Doctor Ali Shakh hasn’t had a private life for over two months. He constantly treats wounds inflicted by Russian forces on Ukrainian civilians and soldiers. He also reluctantly joins the Moscow soldiers, thinking about a possible prisoner exchange.
The young doctor says he lives in the military hospital in Zaporizhzia, a large city in southern Ukraine, tens of kilometers from the front. During the night Shakh hears the sound of bombs.
As Russia withdrew from most of northern Ukraine to concentrate efforts in the Donbass region (east) and the south of the country, this industrial city has become the main reception center for the displaced and the war-wounded.
Farad Gokharovitch Ali Shakh says he works 20 hours a day and operates on 20 consecutive patients.
Since the February 24 Russian invasion, thick tarpaulins have been placed on the windows of the hospital to prevent the hospital from being too visible from the sky and being the target of night attacks by the Russian army.
The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday criticized Ukraine’s “200 attacks on health centers” since the start of hostilities.
A tarpaulin was also placed on the windows to prevent shards from reaching patients in the event of a bombing. The first houses in Zaporizhzhia were hit by a Russian rocket last week.
The hospital remains largely in the dark. Conversations are held by the light of the table lamp. The patients’ X-rays get a spectral breakdown, but the photos the doctor shows on their cell phone are even more shocking.
animals
One image shows a practically torn leg, supported only by a piece of skin.
“This is very common here,” explains Ali Shakh. “We were able to restore the ships and then repair their ends.” In another photo, a patient’s arm was nearly severed. He survived too, says the doctor.
When asked about his mental capacity to withstand so much pain, he replied, “We have learned to face such injuries. We work hard but help our country.”
After a short while, he spontaneously says: “We also serve the Russian soldiers, but maybe we shouldn’t. Maybe we should leave them there, let them fertilize our land.
He admits to a “lack of motivation” when it comes to treating enemy wounds. But if they are treated well, they can be exchanged for Ukrainian soldiers captured by the Russians.
Across the hospital, boxes of clothing and medical supplies demonstrate the urgency of the situation as well as limited resources. Major Viktor Pyssanko, director of the Zaporizhzhia military hospital, says, referring to the Russians, that surgeons must make sacrifices to treat “animals.”
Russian soldiers are “brainless youths” filled with “propaganda,” he adds. According to Pyssanko, they want to “liberate” Ukraine, but they also want to “kill as many Ukrainians as possible”.
He admits that the hospital in Zaporizhzhia is “trying” to save as many Russians as possible, solely for the sole purpose of “exchanging our soldiers.”
Oath
Since the beginning of the war between Moscow and Kyiv, several prisoner exchanges have taken place. Most famously, the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, was abducted on March 11 and soon released.
On March 21, the Kremlin’s human rights delegate, Tatiana Moskalkova, demonstrated the exchange of the mayor for nine Russian soldiers.
The last change took place on Friday. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said 41 Ukrainians were released: 28 soldiers and 13 civilians, including an Orthodox priest.
The three Russian soldiers recovered for three weeks in a civilian hospital in Zaporizhzhia and were then handed over to Ukrainian security forces in late April.
“These men looked depressed, devastated but not aggressive,” said Dr Vassily, who did not reveal his last name. “So we didn’t feel the need to humiliate.”
Acid jokes are the norm among health professionals. “We joked that we could do something bad, but it’s over when it’s time to work and fulfill our Hippocratic oath,” he said.
Vassily claimed that he “never felt the urge to strangle” Russian soldiers. “If I had that thought, I wouldn’t be a doctor.”
source: Noticias
