EXCLUSIVE: I have been given a copy of document issued today by Russian Ministry of Health. It indicates Russia is anticipating a massive medical emergency & has ordered health organisations to immediately identify medical staff ready to relocate & work.
The document from Russian Ministry of Health is signed by deputy health minister and dated today 25 February. It asks medical organisations to be ready ‘to be promptly involved in activities aimed at saving lives & preserving the health of people in Russia.’
Russian medical institutions have been ordered by Health Ministry to send a list no later than 18:00 (90 mins ago) to deputy health minister of ‘medical specialists and medical workers…indicating their full name, place of work, positions & contact details.’
The document from the Russian Ministry of Health makes it clear these medics will be deployed somewhere as ‘reimbursement of travel and accommodation expenses, as well as payment of labour is expected from funds from the Federal Centre of Medical Disasters.’
The letter has a long list of medics it is looking for: trauma, heart, maxillofacial and paediatric surgeons, anaesthetists, radiologists, nurses (including for operating room) and infectious disease specialists.
Document from Ministry of Health shows Russia is clearly preparing for a major medical event where doctors have to be drafted from across the country. The letter is signed by Deputy Health Minister Plutnitsky.
This order from Russian Ministry of Health has been issued as Russian forces attempt to advance on Kyiv and other cities in Ukraine.
I understand doctors were gathered together yesterday and told to ‘get ready.’ Today, the document from the Russian Health Ministry arrived. I am told this is highly unusual and almost unprecedented.
A Ukrainian military official has just told me this document could indicate medics are being drafted to assist with casualties from Russia’s invasion in Ukraine. The official said one reading of the document is that Russia did not expect a level of resistance from Ukraine.
This would tally with reports from a senior US defence official who said today ‘there is greater resistance by Ukrainians than the Russians expected,’ and that Russia is not moving on Kyiv as fast as they anticipated and that Russia may have lost a ‘little bit of their momentum.’
Exclusive Russian Ministry of Health document indicates how Russia is preparing for an event with mass casualties & is calling up doctors, inc trauma surgeons. Ukraine military official believes it may suggest Russia has met resistance in Ukraine assault. itv.com/news/2022-02-2…
This document does not refer to Ukraine and references ‘saving lives...in Russia.' I have asked Russian officials if it is true Russia is preparing for a mass casualty event and if this is because Russia has met more resistance than anticipated in Ukraine. Waiting for response.
Ukrainian military official told me they think the document 'clearly demonstrates Russians didn't expect to face such a level of resistance & losses. They wanted to make a blitzkrieg operation & should have finished it by now, but they are still far from achieving their goals.'
Expressing concern, the Ukrainian military official told me one interpretation of the document issued to medical organisations by the Russian Ministry of Health could be that 'Putin has the intention to go until the end, despite huge losses of personnel.'
Despite the strength of international sanctions, there is concern that they will not deter President Putin from invading Ukraine. The preparations by Russia to recruit medical staff are being interpreted as a sign that this conflict could be very bloody.
UPDATE: Two Russian doctors have confirmed they have seen a copy of this document. The Ministry of Health document given to me indicates Russia is preparing for a mass casualty event and is asking medics including trauma, heart and face surgeons to register their details urgently
EXCLUSIVE: Russian doctors ordered to form 'special brigades' to deal with casualties after receiving orders ‘to work under a special regime,’ a doctor has told me @itvnews. Today I also understand doctors have been sent to Rostov region, bordering Ukraine itv.com/news/2022-03-0…
On 25th February I reported on a doc which said Russia's Ministry of Health was preparing for a massive medical emergency. It asked medical institutions to identify trauma medics ready to relocate. 3 Russian doctors confirmed they have seen a copy of it.
On the 22nd February according to a Russian doctor, hospitals received a document cancelling holidays for senior staff & ordering all staff to work 'under a special regime' of a heightened state of readiness.
I’m told document dated 22nd February was sent to hospitals which have research ties to Russian government & which have previously dealt with war casualties from Donbass and Syria. Doc is dated 2 days before Putin ordered invasion of Ukraine & a day after he slammed USSR collapse
On 1st March, on one hospital's daily morning zoom call, medics were apparently given a message by hospital management.
'They told us, "we order everyone to work under a special regime."' They said that… everyone should be ready,' the doctor said.
The doctor says medics were told, 'we need to create special brigades. Some are specialists - surgeons, haematologists - others are general. They [hospital management] said there should be brigades where people are contactable at all times and are ready to go at any moment.'
The doctor said, 'we were told they could send us anywhere. Maybe Moscow, maybe to other regions. No one asked questions, because everyone knows where they will be going…These stories are familiar - previously people went to Syria, now they’re going to deal with Ukraine.'
Some hospitals are asking docs to backfill shifts because medics have apparently already been sent away to work. A message says 'Dear Doctors! We have an amazing opportunity to fill in for X who is on an urgent business trip. We need willing people for a vacant shift on March X’
The call for some doctors to help treat victims of the war in Ukraine has been so sudden that I have been told of medical staff rushing in to say goodbye to colleagues before being taken straight from work towards the frontlines to deal with casualties.
Today for the first time Russia Defence Ministry spokesperson Major General Igor Konashenkov provided numbers of men killed since Russia invaded Ukraine last week. Konashenkov said 498 people had died ‘in the line of duty’ & 1597 servicemen were injured.
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On the walls of a school in a tiny village in western Russia hangs a stone plaque in honour of a soldier who died in battle.
Here, on the Eastern Front, millions of Soviet soldiers died fighting Hitler’s Nazi invasion. But the stone plaque on this school is not for one of them.
Sergey Muraviev was one of first soldiers Putin sent to Ukraine on 24th February. He was dead not even a month later: killed in Zaporizhzhia region of southern Ukraine protecting his comrades & ‘peaceful citizens’ according to Russia's Defence Ministry. itv.com/news/2023-02-2…
THREAD: a short look at a scolding from Putin & what it tells us about modern Russia.
Today Putin slammed head of Ministry of Industry & Trade Denis Manturov for not signing any new contracts for aircraft in 2023.
Putin was pictured dramatically eye-rolling & paper shuffling.
Broadcast on state TV, the head of the trade ministry told Putin that things were in place ‘taking into account testing, certification and the import substitution programme.’
Russia is under sanctions for its war in Ukraine meaning it can’t access western tech - inc for planes.
Putin must know(??) there are challenges pivoting the Russian airline industry towards domestic production (hard without western tech) but he doesn’t seem to care. ‘Why are you playing the fool? When will there be contracts?’ Putin asks his helpless minister with raised eyebrows.
NEW: Western officials say Russia's strategy of bombing Ukraine into cold darkness looks like it might stop working. Time between missile salvos is increasing & no. of missiles dropping as Russia struggles to resupply
'At some point, they'll have to go back to the drawing board'
NEW: Western officials say, 'the waves were coming continuously at while the Russians felt they had sufficient stocks. Their ability to do this on an ongoing basis has been severely reduced...their strategy hasn’t worked. The Ukrainian people have shown some real resilience.'
NEW: Almost a year into Ukraine war, western officials say Russia air force's 'training does not prepare them for warfare...the navy is ineffective, it's a defensive flotilla.' Russia has 'severely underperformed' in cyber & hybrid warfare & intelligence has 'been found wanting.'
Putin/Lukashenko presser: sounds like a Russian bureaucratic takeover of Belarus. Russia & Belarus will streamline customs/tax systems/will have united air defence system.
Lukashenko: 'Are we able to defend our independence without Russia?'
Doesn't sound like there is much left
BREAKING: Putin says Russia & Belarus are joining military forces. 'There will be a Russia-Belarus regional grouping of troops. Right now in Belarus a military harmonization event is taking place, including joining our military units. There will be a united air defence system.'
BREAKING: Putin sounds like he is bolstering Russian forces by effectively taking control of Belarus military.
'It's a priority to prepare (joint) troops for readiness & combat capability...carry out joint deliveries of weapons & jointly produce new military equipment.'
Near the Georgia border crossing into Russia, protesters are playing the Ukrainian national anthem and trolling the Russians who are leaving.
‘In surveys, most of you support the war. So why now are you leaving?’ reads the sign carried by the man draped in the Ukraine flag.
This man’s sign says ‘Putin did not personally set off rockets. Putin and 190,000 of his clones did not come to Ukraine on a tank but 190,000 Russians did.’
Russia is putting a military conscription office at Russia-Georgia border. The message: try to leave, you’ll be drafted.
Russian officials say cars heading to Georgia is ‘seriously increasing.’ 115K people have crossed in last week here, 23.3% higher than wk before. @tass_agency
NEW: At Georgia-Russia border, Danil gave me this video of Russian soldiers in balaclavas arriving. ‘There are thousands of people standing there. When the referendum in Ukraine is over (today) I think Russia is going to declare all-out war and ban men from leaving the country.’
At Georgia-Russia border I went to chat to truck drivers. Quote of day comes from an Armenian carrying cognac:
‘I’ve been driving to Moscow for 22yrs. Because of all this we’ve waited here 4 days. Normally it takes 3 days…unless Natasha in Rostov stops me…then it takes 5 days’