FROM OUR REPORTER
BAKHMUT — “Of course I’m here, right? But where else could I be, since I studied medicine and can help treat our fighters?” Maria M. is surprised about her when we ask her what prompted her to voluntarily leave with the medical units of the Ukrainian army a year ago. “How could I stay at home, or perhaps escape abroad, knowing that so many of my comrades were being recruited to stop the Russian invasion? When Putin decided to attack us I was amazed: I couldn’t believe this could happen in our era. Even my father Roman, who is 48 and an intelligence officer, did not anticipate that the Russians really wanted to take all of Ukraine. But now we are both here, on Bakhmut’s front, the hottest in the war right now. And we won’t go away I will finish my master’s degree in psychology and traumatology at Ternopil University only when we win. But the wounded in the field were my daily lessons» he tells us in the tiny collection center for the wounded brought from the fields to the front lines of the northern trenches.
There is a 24/7 alert. They are quartered in a peasant cottage facing the road, every two or three minutes the air is shaken by explosions, which reverberate ominously on the horizon when it gets dark. Maria is 25 years old, she obtained her diploma in psychology at the University of Ivano-Frankivsk, her hometown in the western regions of the country. And now take advantage of the breaks to follow the Master’s courses remotely. «It’s not easy, but connections via Starlink help a lot. We soldiers are connected even when enemy bombing brings large parts of the national infrastructure to its knees. The Russians are here, ahead of us, less than six kilometers away. They bombard us non-stop, even if I have to say that the worst was a week ago, there were very dangerous moments, artillery and missiles made this area a hell. For 48 hours we treated and stabilized hundreds of wounded, who needed to be able to make the ambulance journey to hospitals in the rear. 80 percent were injured by shrapnel from bombs, especially artillery, only 5 percent were caused by bullets», he adds.
In the nearby emergency room we have just witnessed the arrival of 41-year-old infantryman Andrei, hit by shrapnel on his neck and right shoulder, blood dripping on his chest. The doctors cleaned him up, his arm was bandaged, then the ambulance traveled for about half an hour to the most important regional medical point, where he was stabilized and prepared for the four-hour transfer to major centers hospitals of Dnipro. How many injured? «No comment, the data is forbidden», Maria and her colleagues respond, even though the NATO commands report about 200 Ukrainians killed and hundreds more injured daily, the majority right here, in the Bakhmut salient. Maria explains that they need bandages and tourniquets to stop the bleeding, as well as kits to seal lung wounds and disposable syringes.
For two days the situation seems to have improved a little. The Russian commands announce advances and that they have inflicted serious losses on the enemy; from Kiev the General Staff replies that it has killed over 1,000 Russians in 24 hours. But here on the front the soldiers seem to be breathing hard, the 120mm mortar batteries, that four days ago were firing non-stop, are now silent, so much so that the platoon of orderlies finds time to cook a hot meal of sauerkraut soup accompanied by «vareniki», stuffed ravioli.
Maria moves as if she were at home. On calm nights she sleeps on a sofa in the dressing room. He says: «Three months ago here I met a boy my age, we’ve been together ever since. We don’t have much time to meet. But it is an intense story: the war helps to distinguish the important from the superfluous and every choice becomes relevant».