There are basement spaces instead of the hospital boxes. The patients have been here for 6 days in a row, hiding from the enemy fire. Among the children there are those with orphan diseases, patients after neurosurgical operations, children with oncology, newborn babies and other patients.

Okhmatdyt is the biggest children’s hospital in Ukraine. It’s a whole town consisting of various buildings, where specialists of different directions do their job. While we are able to provide medical care at a “pre-war level” in such a large system, the shelter conditions greatly depend on the state of basements. None of us had been assuming that we would be transforming them into operating theatres and wards…

Currently the hospital has become not only a place where people are treated, but also a shelter and a temporary home for mothers with their children who have been stuck here during and after treatment. There are parents and children who were admitted to the hospital one day before the war started. Families that lost contact with their relatives. Today they have no choice but to spend nights on the floor and mattresses to the sounds of air raid sirens. The children don’t fully realise what is happening as they’re surrounded by an incredible amount of love and care, but the only question we hear from the mothers is “When will it be over?”, and what we can read in their eyes is “I’m exhausted”.

Thanks to caring citizens and volunteers we have food, water and necessary supplies delivered. Our doctors and staff stay at Okhmatdyt day and night and take care about every patient at the hospital.We thank the Armed forces of Ukraine and units of teretorial defence who keep our fragile peace, protect us from enemy attacks and let us save lives.

The staff of Okhmadyt address the whole world: the aggressor needs to be stopped! Our children mustn’t sleep in basements, doctors mustn’t perform surgeries in bomb shelters. We will withstand because our nation is amazing: citizens, doctors, parents, children, everyone. But this horror has to stop now.