From the outside, the blue and yellow carriages are indistinguishable from the dozens of Soviet-era trains carrying millions of refugees fleeing war-ravaged parts of Ukraine.
But that’s completely on purpose. Because it is a medical train carrying a cargo even more vulnerable to Russian airstrikes on the country’s railways.
On board are innocent children, women and pensioners seriously injured by bullets and bomb blasts during Vladimir Putin’s deadly assault on their once peaceful homes and villages.
The Daily Mail joined the train last week as it stopped at a secret location on the outskirts of Lviv, where dozens of paramedics waited on the platform in the spring sunshine.
A sense of hope and relief hung in the air. Finally, after an arduous 24-hour journey covering 700 miles, exhausted patients with horrific injuries were quickly removed from the train, loaded onto stretchers and wheelchairs, placed in ambulances and taken to nearby hospitals for treatment. vital.
The Ukrainian government says the Russian military has killed or injured tens of thousands of civilians since its invasion began in late February.
The Kremlin denies targeting civilians, but hospitals are struggling to cope with the huge volume of war casualties in the east of the country.
That’s why the charity Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) has come up with a remarkable solution of boarding a medical train to evacuate them to the relative safety of Lviv.
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Train intended to transfer patients from hospitals near the front lines in the east to hospitals in western Ukraine. This medical train was developed by Médecins Sans Frontières in collaboration with the Ukrainian Railways and the Ministry of Health
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Teams of tireless and courageous doctors are working around the clock to care for passengers amid the constant threat of Russian airstrikes.
The train has saved around 400 people since it went into service last month, with each passenger representing another free bed in hospitals near the frontline.
“We’ve never done anything like this before,” said Christopher Stokes, UK head of the charity’s emergency teams in Ukraine.
“I don’t think medical trains have been used since World War II. Mr Stokes explains how the eight cars were transformed in just three weeks, refitted into a state-of-the-art mobile hospital. Five intensive care unit beds have been installed.
There are two eight-bed cars and another to transport the walking wounded and family members.
One of the hospital wards aboard MSF’s Ukrainian train, fitted with Soviet-era rolling stock to rescue and evacuate the wounded from the war-torn east of the country
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Volunteers in Lviv help patients after MSF train arrives
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The charity had to widen the car doors so the beds could be moved in and out. Pictured: Volunteers in Lyiv helping MSF
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The charity had to widen the car doors so the beds could be moved in and out.
The floors have been reinforced to cope with a two ton diesel generator, plus fuel and another 1.9 ton battery to keep all the medical kit running.
One of the cars is equipped with seven oxygen generators which purify the air. Yet for all this ultra-modern kit, the old train’s antiquated heating system is still fueled with charcoal by a driver on board each carriage.
Ukrainian Railways provides the staff and an electric locomotive that pulls the cars at a constant speed of 60 mph.
There are no showers but enough berths for the 20 staff members to sleep for a few hours during the 48-hour round trip to Zaporizhzhia.
“You move, the patient moves, everything moves,” says Belgian nurse Margot Baro, 31, of how difficult it can be to put on an IV drip.
Doctors look exhausted as they get off the train in Lviv. He had run the gauntlet of Russian air raids to save 22 wounded from Bakhmut, a town at the forefront of the fighting in Donbass.
After a debriefing on the quay, the rescuers head to a hotel to rest their heads one night before making the trip again the next day.
A patient got off the train with the help of volunteers and medical staff in Lviv
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Roksolana Pavlyshyn, 28, helps patients after the MSF train arrives
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It’s mentally and physically exhausting – there’s a trained psychiatrist on board. “My party is taking a shower,” says Dr Stig Walravens, a Swede who is the train’s medical supervisor.
Among those hobbling was 15-year-old Ihor Bilyanskyi, a skinny boy from Siversk on the front line.
His neck and face were covered in bandages after being hit by a shell in his garden.
After getting into an ambulance, he said, “The shelling has happened. I started running behind the house. A shock wave covered me. I was hit by the fragment and lost consciousness. I came to and saw a lot of blood. My grandmother was in front of me and I started screaming.
Ihor will need plastic surgery, but was lucky to survive. The only family with him was grandmother Valentyna – his mother had gone to Russia before the war and was not allowed to return home.
The oldest patient was Nina Dubovyk, 87. His daughter-in-law Valentina, 60, said: ‘There are Grad missiles all the time.
One hit our house and my mother-in-law has burns on her face. There was a big fire. We almost suffocated.
Roksolana Pavlyshyn, 28, a paramedic in Lviv, said: “What these people have been through is horrible. It’s hurt beyond words, but I hope they’re safe now.
Additional reporting by Omelyan Oshchudlyak and photographer Yuriy Dankevych in Lviv
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