In Ukraine, volunteers help the wounded
Many volunteer medics are converging on small towns near the front lines in eastern Ukraine, helping to treat the soldiers wounded during the war with Russia.
Shattered peace
Memories of a peaceful time — the city of Bakhmut was never set up to handle long hospital lines. But now, wounded from the front are being brought here for treatment, another sign of the bitter reality of Russia's brutal invasion.
On the front lines
In this photo, medics from the First Volunteer Mobile Hospital Pirogov transport a Ukrainian soldier, wounded on the front lines at Popasna, to Bakhmut. Although doctors said he will live, he may remain paralyzed as a result of fragment wounds to the spine.
Young volunteer
Ukrainian medic Bohdan Marchuk is just 23 years old. Waiting in his ambulance for a call to the front, he, too, is a member of the Volunteer Mobile Hospital Pirogov. Many secondhand ambulances in the region come from Germany and Poland and are now being used behind the front lines in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region.
Sharing the pain
Wounded volunteer soldiers Maksim (center) and Andrei (right) wait on a bench at Bakhmut's hospital. The hospital's main task is to "stabilize" patients until they are well enough to be transported away from the front, to hospitals in western Ukraine.
Long-distance call with family
Alessandro, another Ukrainian soldier, attempts to reach his grandson who was able to flee to Poland. "My family is safe there, while we deal with this," he said, as he patiently waits for network coverage.
Patriotic obligation
Aleksandra Pohranychna, 20, is the only trained medic in her unit. She waits to be taken to the front line or for wounded soldiers to be brought to her location for treatment. "I decided to get involved and help," she said. She said her father, who remains in her hometown of Lviv in western Ukraine, gave her money to buy protective gear before she set off for the front.
Clear statement
Pohranychna recently had Ukraine's coat of arms and a line from the Ukrainian poet Lesya Ukrainka tattooed onto her forearm. The line reads: "I have something in my heart that will never die."
Sometimes help arrives too late
A medic carries a stretcher past an ambulance transporting the corpse of a dead Ukrainian soldier. For many wounded, help simply arrives too late. More than 80 days of war have not only taken their toll on Ukrainians; thousands of Russians have also been killed in the conflict and there seems to be no end in sight.