“The danger never stopped,” the medical director of a hospital in the Ukrainian city of Okhtyrka told The Daily Beast.
Hundreds of wounded citizens had flooded the city’s main hospital through March and February, forcing doctors to live in the hospital’s basement for weeks on end. On Feb. 26, the second day of, 70 Ukrainian soldiers died at an army base in the city center. Shocked, wounded soldiers with missing limbs overran the hospital, Deinichenko told The Daily Beast
The Russians withdrew from the area at the end of March after failing to take control of the city. But increased shelling from across the Russian border has Deinichenko fearing that the Russians might soon return. Since the start of war, around 40 percent of his staff have fled, and he is doing everything to prepare for another assault.“I cannot blame people for leaving. It was terrible, but I try to prepare the best I can,” says Deinichenko. “The danger never stopped.
“Those planes were so fast. So fast. I could see the smoke. It was scary, so scary. I don’t know how to describe it. I don’t have a home now,” said Tanya, who didn’t want to give her last name as she showed us around her basement, where she hid for days. She said her basement has not been stable since the attack. “Don’t hit [anything] on the way in,” she warned. “The whole thing might collapse.