Race for life. A report from Mechnikov Hospital in Dnipro, where seriously wounded soldiers are being brought

Every day ambulances line up near Mechnikov Hospital: the wounded are brought here from the front and then transported to other Ukrainian hospitals. More than a hundred patients, both military and civilian, pass through the hospital's emergency room every day. During Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, Mechnikov has treated 45,000 soldiers. Every day they try to save up to 20 soldiers in intensive care.

LIGA.net's report shows the everyday life of those who save lives every minute and those who learn to live again after severe injuries.

"When I leave here, I try to forget everything."

It's hot in Dnipro: in July 2025, temperature records of 36-38 °C were set. Ambulances are lined up outside the reception area of Mechnikov Hospital as wounded soldiers are transported to other hospitals. The driver of one of the ambulances greets a hospital security guard and complains that it is impossible to work in this heat. The guard grumbles tiredly: "You can't please us..."

One by one, the soldiers are being taken out of the ward on gurneys: their condition has been stabilized and they are now going to be transferred to other hospitals and clinics in Ukraine. Several of them have head wounds, some have amputations. Other soldiers are standing near the vehicles and smoking.

Inside the waiting room, there is a hospital noise: someone's phone is constantly ringing, and the medical staff is gathering for a short meeting. "There will be a lot of work," one of the doctors warns the young intern. Sick civilians are brought in on gurneys from the street. Nurses meet all these people, one of them is 24-year-old Iryna Dereenko.

"A lot of stories happened here, but when I leave here, I try to forget everything. so I don't go crazy," she says.

Three nurses, two doctors, and four to five other support staff members are on daily duty in the admission department. In total, the department employs more than 100 people. But even this is sometimes not enough – there are situations when ten nurses are needed at once.

Iryna Dereenko has been working at Mechnikov for several years and plans to become a doctor. Every day her shift starts at 8:00 a.m. and lasts for a day. At least 100 people pass through the department every day. Sometimes as many as 130. On average, it's 50-50: half civilians and half military. But there are days when almost all are military.

"The hardest part of the job is, of course, when they bring in a lot of seriously wounded people at once," says the nurse. "They come from all directions of the frontline; evacuation is going on around the clock. They come to us day and night.".

the "most serious" patients are taken directly to the intensive care unit. These are patients with no arms, no legs, no eyes. There was a case when a missile flew into a high-rise building on Peremohy Street in Dnipro, demolishing three entrances.

In the operating room, two wounded soldiers are being operated on at the same time. It often takes hours. Several medical professionals are involved in the work. Nazar, with whom Lilia works, was injured in the legs.

"We have already ordered freshly frozen plasma and red blood cells for this patient (Nazar – LIGA.net) to restore his globular blood volume," says the anesthesiologist. "He lost a lot of blood during the evacuation.".

Every day, 20 to 40 wounded are admitted to the intensive care unit. Most often, patients with massive blood loss, especially as a result of amputations or shrapnel wounds, are admitted to the intensive care unit. The hospital performs 15 to 30 surgical interventions per day in the emergency department alone. The operating rooms work non-stop. After leaving the intensive care unit, patients are transferred to the intensive care unit, where they are examined by other doctors, including a psychiatrist .

After stabilization of the wounded (first of all, anesthesia, blood loss and shock), doctors begin a comprehensive diagnosis: they take tests, CT scans, X-rays and other examinations.

"It all depends on the nature of the injuries. If there is a suspicion of internal bleeding, brain damage, bone defects, we immediately do a CT scan," Liliia continues. "We work as quickly as possible: it's a matter of minutes.".

The wounded usually spend up to a week in the unit, after which they are either transferred to a specialized unit or evacuated to Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa and other cities.

Anatoliy Halushchak, head of the department, smells of coffee and looks tired.

"At some point, we even stopped writing down the first two digits in the numbers and started writing only the last three," he says. "This is also to avoid unnecessary psychological pressure on the wounded soldiers – there are more than 40,000 of them. The intensive care unit is completely full.".

Anatoliy remembers one day in October 2024 the most. A ballistic missile flew across the street from Mechnikov Hospital. Doctors were operating on the wounded at the time. The blast wave blew out the windows in the operating room.

"The siren was blaring, there was a roar, but we did not stop the operation," Anatoliy recalls. "But that's not the hardest part anyway. The hardest thing is to psychologically withstand human pain. Amputations. The suffering. Each patient has his or her own story, and you have to listen to all of them. And also: to explain when the prosthetics will be done, how many more surgeries, how long the rehabilitation will last. Seeing human pain is the hardest thing of all".

"The main blow fell on me"

There are three of them in the ward: one wounded man is sleeping, the other is having lunch, and the third is watching a video with headphones. All of them have recently undergone amputations. Viktor, a Cossack-looking master of unmanned systems, is from Zaporizhzhia. To talk, Viktor sits up a bit on his bed – he is not allowed to get up.

Viktor was admitted to the hospital a few days ago after being seriously wounded. Now he has a high amputation of his left leg. The first thing he did when he woke up was ask for the phone to call his wife, "because she will kill me for not writing." Usually, he always wrote when he went on a mission and when he returned, but this time he couldn't – a Russian FPV drone flew into the platoon where Viktor worked.

"It was in Donetsk region," says the soldier, "We were leaving our positions and spotted an enemy drone. We saw it flying right at us. We turned aside, drove into an alley, stopped, activated the jammer, jumped out of the car and ran in different directions. But he still followed us. Once we had a similar situation: a drone hit an empty car, and we managed to run away. This time, it flew in the direction I was running. I was in front, so I took the brunt of the impact. Another comrade got slightly lighter injuries.".

Viktor was lucky that his comrades were there immediately: they quickly loaded him into a pickup truck and radioed that they were taking him to a stabilization center. It took about 40 minutes from the moment he was wounded to the time of delivery, which is extremely fast, the defender says. "If the transport had not been on the move, I probably would not have survived. It was another piece of luck that the second drone did not have time to finish the job: usually one attacks and the second one comes back to confirm the hit or complete the attack, but this time it went the other way.".

At the station, Viktor had already received a blood transfusion – his blood type was O-positive. Then came the urgent surgery. All this time, his comrades-in-arms stayed at the aid station and waited for news from the surgeon whether his condition had been stabilized and whether he had a chance to survive. After the surgery, Viktor was transferred to Mechnikov Hospital. He woke up in the ward, and was treated with intravenous drips, anesthesia and bandages.

Viktor remembers coming to as if in a delirium: a white floor in front of his eyes (in fact, it was the ceiling), girls in white coats saying "Wait, wait!"; strange sensations in his mouth – the wounded man arrived at the unit connected to a ventilator.

Viktor's day at Mechnikov's starts early: at about 4-4:30, the nurses come in. They take turns waking up the patients, changing their bedding, washing them and letting them sleep a little more. Then there are bandages and other procedures, breakfast and rounds.

Viktor will definitely stay in the ward for a few more days. Then the doctor will see how the wound will heal. The wounded jokes about amputation:

"My guys came, the ones who saved me. I said: "Guys, where is my leg? I remember waking up in the car with my leg still there." They said: "It was jumping on the car!"

Viktor says that everything in this hospital is based not only on maintaining physical condition. A lot depends on the mood and inner core. Some people find it easier to accept everything and move on after being wounded, while others give up. "I know guys who have no arms, no legs, but they are so strong that even civilians can take an example from them." There are those who even return to their units.

"The most important thing here is the support of my family. My wife is incredibly strong. While others are crying, she calms everyone down. You know the saying, men make a will at a temperature of 37, but women... They are very strong. Although I'm sure it's even harder for her than for me. The main thing is not to break down. It hurts, of course, but pain is not the end. If you have support and a desire to live, you can get through this. I don't give up on myself," says Viktor .

***

The big red sun is slowly setting, and there is even a light and pleasant cool breeze in the Dnipro at night. The man in the pixelated uniform with the bandaged head takes one last slow drag and throws the cigarette butt into the trash can. Blue and red lights flash in the darkness. It's the ambulances lined up at the entrance to the emergency room again.