Thread by @MaximEristavi

“operating on the wounded in the basements while fighting rages on outside”

life of remaining doctors in sieged mariupol, quoted and translated from the message of local city council:

t.me/mariupolrada/8…

for 23 days mariupol remains under siege. for 23 days our city is purposefully destroyed by russian occupiers. thousands of civilians are killed, the number of wounded is at least 3 times higher. despite all of this our hospitals continue to fight for the lives of mariupol folks

the matsuka city hospital in the livoberezhnyi district is still functioning. continuous shelling forced doctors to move emergency surgeries to a basement. diesel generators provide some minimal lights. doctors drain remaining boilers in the building for last bits of water

the pressure doctors face is grueling. at least a few dozen injured mariupol residents come here every day. some need a bandage, and some urgently need surgery. there is no place or time for doctors to allow fatigue. before the war the hospital had 95 doctors. only 9 left now

doctors live in the same basements where they work. together with their families. some of their colleagues managed to escape the city. other were killed.

just the day before yesterday a prominent mariupol doctor, head of the children's infectious diseases department anatoliy kazantsev got killed by russian shelling. he spent more than 40 years saving lives of mariupol kids

our doctors are real heroes. they have their own frontline, going from a peaceful life to the hardships of war in a moment. but every mariupol doctor who stays and continues to treat people is a symbol of humanity.

mariupol doctors stand in a powerful opposition to the cruelty and hatred of the russian occupation forces. ukraine stands because of ordinary ukrainians like them who are risking their own lives again and again for the sake of saving others