Fighting and violence in Ukraine are so productive that hospitals are facing a flood of civilians, often arriving with injuries that are foreign to younger doctors. And as in other conflicts, including Syria, the Russians are targeting these medical facilities, destroying 279 so far and completely decimating another 19, according to the Ukrainian Health Minister. CNN’s Jake Tapper visited a hospital in the west of the country, where patients from the east and south had to travel hundreds of miles to seek safe treatment. Olga Zuchenko survived seven bombs that hit her neighborhood in the Luhansk region, but now she is lying in a hospital bed and may never walk again. “I have lost everything. “I have lost my apartment, my property, my health,” he told CNN through a translator. “We did not expect to see it. We have always considered the Russians as brotherly people. “We never hoped they would kill us like that.” Nearly two months after the conflict, it has become clear that attacks on civilian neighborhoods – such as the one Zhuchenk suffered – are not accidental, CNN reported. “The facts lead to a single conclusion. The Russians deliberately slaughter Ukrainians. “Moms and dads, kids, grandparents,” Tapper continued. Meanwhile, American doctors have traveled to Ukraine, hoping to offer the help and experience they gained during their stay in the Middle East. “We wanted to share information from our experiences in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan,” he said. John Holcomb, Professor of Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, at Tapper Hospital. So brutal are the injuries suffered by Ukrainian citizens that local doctors are faced with cases that are unlike any they have ever seen. “The injury we have now is unbelievable,” revealed Dr. Hnat Herych, head of surgery at a hospital in Ukraine. He has seen an influx of thousands of patients and has a message to share. “I want the people to know that they have to know that the Russian forces are not fighting the Ukrainian army, they are fighting the Ukrainian people,” he told Tapper. “They are killing civilians, they are killing children, they are destroying our country.” And the war hurts the Ukrainians in many ways, apart from bullets and bombs. Olha Akynshyn was forced to celebrate her 45th birthday from a hospital bed after suffering a major car accident while leaving the Kharkiv region with her husband and son. “We had a happy life. “Everything was perfect and then everything changed very abruptly,” he told Tapper through a translator. After hiding in a basement for a month amid relentless bombing, Akynshyn and her family decided to get in their car and flee when the adjoining building was leveled. He had not slept for two days and had a horrible car accident. “We were so scared, especially our child was so scared that we could not stay anymore,” he said. Now Akynshyn is not sure she will ever be able to return to her old city or her old life. “The school where my child learned has been destroyed, but I hope, if our house was safe, we will return, we will rebuild it. Our neighbor will rebuild our village, our city. “I love my Ukraine so much, I would just like to live here in Ukraine,” he said.
