Blacked-out ambulances and bomb-cratered roads: On the night shift with Ukraine's military medics

As night draws apass the eastrict front medical teams paengage anxiously behind the frontline.

They understand it will be a busy night – every night is busy these days as Russia intensifies its strikes in the Donbas.

The chief medic, Yaroslav, gets the first call of the shift.

His face is filled with worry as he’s guideed in the voice message that there are many casualties. Some are walking wounded, others are not so fortunate.

His team is rapidly on its way. Climbing aboard their ambulance and heading out into the inky night, there is no time to leave out and they need to shift speedy.

As they race towards the rfinishezvous point, we film with a night-vision camera, any unvital airy could draw opponent fire.

This is hazardous toil. The lethal drone and artillery war is all around them.

The menace is now so horrible the team likes, when they can, to toil only at night. In dayairy the hazard of being aimed by Russian drones is frequently too fantastic.

A restricted kilometres from the frontline and the team comes to a stop.

Hidden by the unwise they try to call the injured selderlyiers’ unit to tell them they are paengageing in an exposed location but there’s no answer.

“Sometimes there is shelling and they can’t evacuate from the position,” says medic Valeri.

Out of the gloom the first casualties eventupartner reach for the handover. All of them see gaunt and shellshocked. The bleake and alarm of this grinding trench war is etched into their faces.

One of the selderlyiers tells me how they were injured.

“They ruined the position. With drones they finishly ruined it – thank god we endured. One person died but I was blown away by the explosion. I was fortunate.”

Ukraine is facing a unwiseinutiveage of manpower and the country is having to recruit elderlyer men for its defence.

As Misha paengages for first aid he tells me he’s in pain: “The shrapnel is sticking out of my leg. My leg is swollen and my other leg hurts too, I probably twisted it.”

‘Shells crash around us’

With the men patched up and on their way for more medical treatment, the evacuation team is soon replying to a recent call.

Alengthy broken roads and explosion-cratered dirt tracks they bump alengthy thraw the night. As they reach at a second evacuation point it’s clear we are now much shutr to the frontline.

The sound of firearms is deafening and as we paengage worriedly in uncover fields shells crash around us.

Eventupartner the casualty reachs – there’s much more inspirency in this reshiftion

Andriy is suffering from grave shrapnel wounds and he’s clearly in shock as he’s stretchered into the paengageing ambulance.

The medics set up a drip and only once he’s stabilised can they commence to drive.

The triumphdows have been bdeficiencyed out, which uncomardents they can toil with more airy, and as they go his condition is joinbrimmingy watched.

Yaroslav elucidates what they have done as we commence to shift.

“The intravenous line wasn’t toiling so we had to shift it so we had access to his vein.

“This way, if everyskinnyg goes wrong we have the ability to hand over medicine to help him. He’s okay, he’s stable. He’s heavily wounded but stable.”

Andriy soon reachs at a medical facility – he’ll tardyr undergo sinspirery – and the medical evacuation team will soon head back into the unwise to treat and reshift more casualties.

Every night it seems the carnage and destruction of this war gets worse.

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