Refugees suffer frostbite and mental trauma in Ukraine war

Hospitals under severe pressure from Covid-19 and Russian attacks but medical aid still getting through

A young woman after crossing the Ukrainian border into Poland. Western officials say many refugees are suffering mental trauma and frostbite. AFP
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Refugees from Ukraine are suffering frostbite and severe mental trauma after their war ordeal, western officials report.

With hospitals under severe stress from Covid-19 sufferers and HIV patients in addition to at least 18 being bombed by Russia there are fears of substantial challenges to the health system.

But supplies from Nato, with planeloads of medicine, are still getting into the country with vital aid going to frontline hospitals.

After the World Health Organisation predicted refugees totalling four million within weeks – a 10th of Ukraine’s population – more people are expected to suffer trying to leave the war zone in temperatures as low as minus 10°C.

“The trauma needs are going to increase in terms of complexity but what we're also seeing with refugees now is frostbite because people are walking,” a western official said. “ You're also getting things like women who can't get access to maternal health care. You're getting people with mental health issues because they have just come from areas that have been targeted and bombed.

“You are starting to see people turning up at borders who have got very specific needs and need specific protection. You're getting unaccompanied children turning up, you're getting women sharing reception centres with men ... so all of these things are starting to emerge, which need to be addressed.”

Britain is one of several countries that has flown in supplies, with five planeloads so far arriving in Eastern Europe. The medicines are then driven to the border where the Ukrainian Ministry of Health transfers them to their own lorries to transport to Kyiv.

“We are right in the foothills of just trying to build capacity and respond to the needs we're seeing on the ground,” the official said. “But we are very conscious that this will evolve and we need to respond to it [in the] medium term and long term. But the priority at the moment is life-saving support today.”

But because aid organisations are able to deal with a functioning health ministry it was making it easier to “step up and respond”, the official said.

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