In Rural Ukraine, Medicine and Hope Roll In on a Truck
Michael Schwirtz The New York Times
Conducting an ultrasound during a mobile medical outreach by a team of doctors in the Kharkiv region of Ukraine. Such efforts aim to bring a semblance of normalcy to the area. (photo: NYT)
For eight months, the village of Levkivka in eastern Ukraine was under occupation by Russian troops, who cut off roughly 300 residents from the outside world. There was no running water or power, and Russian soldiers would often snatch their cellphones and stomp on them, fearful that locals would betray their locations, residents said. The only medical care was provided by two village nurses, who braved the constant shelling to make house calls with limited supplies and medicine.
Though Ukrainian forces recaptured Levkivka in September, reconnecting the village to basic services has come slowly. Power and water are back, but medical care is still hard to come by. The medical truck, provided by the United Nations Population Fund and staffed with doctors from the city of Kharkiv, 75 miles to the north, travels around the region, part of a continuing Ukrainian government effort to bring a semblance of normalcy to once occupied villages in the east.
