Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Roubijné, April 13, 2018. As he opens the door to the operating room, the urologist and chief surgeon of Roubijne municipal hospital, Konstantyn Zougan, produces a slight pout of spite. The windows of the room are covered with squares of black plastic. A masked woman makes her way through an old-fashioned bric-a-brac and throws a cloth dripping with blood on the floor. She returns to assist the surgeons in their aortic operation. "At least, in this room, they use one of our new operating lamps," comments Konstantyn Zougan. We in the other room are still with a model dating from 1973 ... "
In most hospitals in Europe, the operating theater is a sanctuary where delicate operations decide the life and death of patients, with the help of state-of-the-art equipment, electronics and safety protocols. In Roubijné, there is no decent sterilization equipment or air compressor. Only one defibrillator works. The hospital had all the necessary, in the years 1970-1980. But since the collapse of the Soviet system, modernization has only been done sparingly, usually depending on humanitarian organizations. "Even wheelchairs could be museum pieces! Konstantyn Zougan is sorry. Despite this, his operating room is operational 24 hours a day.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
12/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Droujkivka, April 13, 2018. For the deputy chief physician of Druzhkivka Hospital, Hennadiy Iefremov, the reform is not adapted to the Ukrainian realities, especially in a context of war. "Our situation is already difficult. I am afraid that it will become catastrophic ... "Hennadiy Iefremov also feels the decline of the health system in his flesh, and recalls the memories of his three years as a seconded specialist in Cuba. a Soviet contingent. "At the time, we were spreading our knowledge in other countries ..."

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Patients in their room of 20m2 to 4 beds, Stanitsa Louhanska Hospital.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
12/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - In Druzhkivka hospital since 1986, head doctor since 1999, Serhiy Neschyotny is at the end of his career and does not want to go anywhere.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Roubijné, April 13, 2018. Thermo-disinfection dating back to 1968. "We are doing our utmost," reassures Christian Carrer, president of the AICM-Ukraine Foundation, one of the most active humanitarian organizations in Roubijné. But the needs are immense. And Roubijné is far from the only hospital in distress in the region. "

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast / Donetsk Oblast - Waiting room at Stanitsa Louhanska Hospital

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - a nurse performs a consultation on an elderly person at Roubijné hospital.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Konstantin Zougan, urologist, chief surgeon at the Roubijné municipal hospital.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast / Donetsk Oblast - Roubijné, April 13, 2018. An assistant nurse of surgeon Konstantyn Zougan folds sheets in another operating room of Roubijné municipal hospital. In this room with poorly insulated windows, dozens of patients pass by week. More than 50,000 people live in the industrial town of Roubijné. A population impoverished by a permanent economic depression, and bruised by the conflict that has persisted since 2014. Clashes between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian and Russian separatist forces have already claimed more than 10,300 lives, according to the UN. The front line is less than 60 kilometers south of the city. Several thousand displaced people have taken refuge in the city. A destitute population in dire need of care that adds to the burden of the hospital.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast / Donetsk Oblast - Stanitsa Louhanska, 14 April 2018. 48,000 people, mainly elderly people, continue to live in Stanitsa Luhanska and the surrounding area. In addition, there are some 15,000 displaced people. "We treated over 18,000 patients in the first three months of the year," says Valeriy Ivanov. However, he only has one surgeon out of the three he counted in 2014, and one out of two traumatologists. The radiologist comes from another district, according to his availability. As for the anesthesiologist, it is a soldier who fills the absence of a civilian professional. Sensitive examinations and operations were previously conducted in the regional capital, Luhansk, 15 kilometers to the south. Today, the separatist Luhansk is isolated behind the front line. There is no alternative but to move north, on at least 80 kilometers of dented roads

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
12/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - The corridors of Druzhkivka Hospital dating from 1953.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
12/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - A man passes an ultrasound for bowel problems.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Roubijné, April 13, 2018. The maternity ward of Roubijné municipal hospital is gleaming. It has just been refurbished thanks to the intervention in 2017 of humanitarian organizations. Dr. Svitlana Niskaradiva now has analytical instruments and incubators, well-isolated rooms and bright lights.

Nothing to do with the lower floor where are housed women about to give birth. Run through a dark corridor, the walls are decrepit and floors covered with a disparate assembly of PVC carpets. A typical postcard of a post-Soviet hospital. "We joke that we need a lot of motivation for pregnant women kept under observation here: give birth and you can access the renovated floor! Exclaims Svitlana Niskaradiva.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - the entrance to the pediatric ward at Roubijné hospital.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
12/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Roubijné, April 13, 2018. In Roubijné and beyond, the return to maternity standards is beneficial, as "the level of public health has decreased in recent years," says Svitlana Niskaradiva. "There are no children without health problems in the region," she says, due to heavy industrial pollution, poor insulation of apartments and schools, chronic malnutrition, and a low vaccination rate. Some of the diseases, such as sugar diabetes, were previously treated in the regional capital, Luhansk, explains Svitlana Niskaradiva. "We had to restructure a large part of our services to make up for the division of the region. "

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
12/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Family doctor Vadim Dotsenko (in the background) and his assistant are waiting for the patients to register them. Druzhkivka Hospital.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Stanitsa Louhanska, April 14, 2018. An elderly patient prepares to eat her lunch in the collective room she occupies at Stanitsa Luhanska Hospital. 140 kilometers south of Roubijné, the facility operates with only 50% of its doctors and 48% of its nurses. "It's a disaster," says Chief Medical Officer Valeriy Ivanov. No one wants to come here to replace the missing professionals. And I can understand why ... "

A few hundred meters from the hospital, the Siverskiy Donets River marks the front line. On the other side, Luhansk, the capital of one of the self-proclaimed separatist republics, is only fifteen kilometers away. The bombings remain regular and the prospects for the future are very uncertain. The bridge over the Siverskyi Donets River was destroyed by bombing in 2015. The fragile wooden bridge of Stanitsa Louhanska remains the main crossing point of the front line in the region.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - A General Service employee removes letters from the former Kramatorsk Technical Faculty. Since the Donbas war, the rectorate of the Donetsk Medical University has been exiled to Ukrainian territory.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - A professor in front of paintings of Soviet-era doctors in the corridors of the Donetsk faculty.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Kramatorsk, April 13, 2018. Working conditions, precarious and sometimes dangerous, push young people to leave. At the Donetsk Medical University, in exile in Kramatorsk under Ukrainian control, most of the 3,000 students seem determined to try their luck in big cities in Ukraine, or even abroad. "Students are free to choose," says Rector Petro Kondratenko. I understand the difficulties of some institutions in attracting young people. But we can not ask our graduates to sacrifice everything at the beginning of their careers. "

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Petro Kondratenko, rector of the Donetsk Medical University, exiled to Kramatorsk in Ukrainian territory. From his office in the former technical faculty of Kramatorsk, the rector has his own difficulties. "We had 6,000 students in Donetsk, today we have 3,000 students, half of them foreign students." Forced to leave Donetsk in 2014, the university also lost two thirds of its teachers and all its equipment.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - Kramatorsk, April 13, 2018. A woman cleans the corridors of the Donetsk Medical School, in exile in Kramatorsk.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
13/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - The central pharmacy of Roubijné hospital.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast / Donetsk Oblast - Stanitsa Luhanska, April 13, 2018. Patients are resting on the beds of their collective room, in the hospital of the city.

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Sadak Souici / Le Pictorium -
In hospitals of eastern Ukraine, the warriors of health -
14/04/2018 - Ukraine / Donetsk Oblast - The canteen of Stanitsa Louhanska Hospital.

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