They work with the Alliance for Public Health (APH), Ukraine’s largest health – focused NGO, which has supported thousands of people living with HIV and AIDS across the country since the beginning of the Russian invasion. It is a vital task, as Ukraine has one of the highest HIV rates in the world: more than 250,000 people are currently living with the virus. Nearly half of them live in cities and regions that are currently under heavy bombardment, raising fears that the war will only worsen the Ukrainian epidemic and could even “reverse gains in the virus by 20 years” if limited treatment and trials and medical supplies are strangled. Reaching patients – or customers, as the charity calls them – is a matter of nightmares, as is the delivery of supplies to areas ravaged by heavy fighting. In Mykolaiv, where she lives and works, Ms Bondarenko has to navigate a moving front line as Ukrainian forces have for weeks repulsed Russian attempts to seize the strategic port city. Kherson, just 40 miles along the Black Sea coast, is occupied by Russian forces. The APH team is trying to work around the heavily armed Russian soldiers patrolling the city. Down on the coast of Mariupol, which has been under siege for more than a month and has suffered some of the heaviest bombing, two of Ms Bondarenko’s colleagues are missing. The telephone network was cut off at the start of the fighting. The whereabouts of the two APH executives are still unknown, and the charity believes its facilities have been bombed. Liudmyla, a social worker, sits in one of APH’s mobile clinics in Odessa with her two clients, who both need HIV treatment (Bell True) “We are worried that our teams will be hit by bombings, airstrikes, rockets, rockets – everything – but our customers are even more afraid. “So we have to work, it’s necessary,” Bondarenko said, describing explosions near her home. He says the organization maintained a well-equipped mobile clinic in Mykolaiv, which would move around the area providing examination, treatment and social support services to vulnerable communities, including drug users and sex workers. But since the war raged in her city, she and her colleagues have resorted to using private cars or traveling on foot, because the trucks that house the clinics “are big, bright and so could easily be targeted by air raids “. “We have to work, we have no other choice. “It is as important as what the army does on the front lines.” Doctors in Ukraine fear an outbreak of infectious diseases, from tuberculosis to Covid, as the Russian invasion has wiped out areas of the country’s healthcare system and supply networks. They are particularly worried about HIV. Prior to the war, Ukraine was already facing the second-largest HIV epidemic in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, according to Frontline Aids, a global APH-backed organization currently conducting a major fundraising campaign for the charity. Eight of the 10 areas we work in are being bombed: the areas most affected by HIV are the areas most affected by the war Ana Korobchuk, Regional Coordinator for APH They say more than 250,000 people now live with the virus in Ukraine, a number that is growing by 15 percent each year. Ana Korobchuk, regional coordinator for the APH in the coastal city of Odessa, says most Ukrainians living with HIV live in cities and regions hardest hit by Putin’s invasion. These include some of the coastal cities as well as the areas around Kharkiv and Chernihiv in eastern and northeastern Ukraine. “Eight of the 10 areas we work in are being bombed: the areas most affected by HIV are the areas most affected by the war,” he added. It has put Ukraine’s fight against HIV and AIDS back 20 years, says Natalia of the charity Spodivannya – an APH partner active in the war-torn area around Zaporizhzhia. “We are extremely concerned that HIV / Aids will be exacerbated during the war. “Right now, the situation with the lack of syringes, condoms, all the hygiene items, masks, tests, everything, is like we’re 20 years old,” he said. “That’s why we try to bring what we can to those who need it most.” She says she faces similar problems with her groups in war-torn areas. Spodivannya had little or no contact with members of her team in the Russian-controlled city of Berdyansk, which is next to Mariupol on the coast. “We can not work in the occupied territories and worry about our own [patients] who are there “, she adds, asking not to publish her last name for fear of retaliation against her staff in those areas that are now in the hands of the Russian army. Oleg and Anatoli – both recovering drug addicts in Odessa – rely on APH services to survive and fear the war will affect their treatment (Bell True) “We have also turned our clinics into hubs for humanitarian aid and are providing medicines, medical supplies and food to the most vulnerable,” he said. Meanwhile, both charities say they are concerned that the mass movement of people will help exacerbate the HIV crisis in Ukraine during the conflict. Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine triggered the worst deportation and refugee crisis in Europe since World War II. So far, more than 4.2 million people have fled Ukraine and another 6.5 million people have been uprooted internally. Korobchuk fears that this will spread the HIV epidemic in Ukraine. “We are currently setting up facilities in the western city of Lviv to manage it,” he says. The main concern, however, is for the customers themselves, many of whom come from vulnerable, poor and marginalized communities. Most do not have the documents that would allow them to leave the country if they run out of drugs, and are struggling with addiction, while illegal drugs, along with drugs that help them deal with their addiction, are becoming more common. rarely. Anatoli, who is 39 years old and vulnerable, is receiving treatment for HIV from APH. He does not want to leave Ukraine, but fears he will have to if the drugs run out. However, as a man of fighting age, he is not allowed to leave any of the borders of Ukraine after a general mobilization issued by the Ukrainian president. Having been addicted to heroin since the age of 15, he has been clean for six years now, but he is still struggling with his social status as a former addict. The charity Spodivannya in Zaporizhzhia prepares humanitarian packages for people living with HIV (Bell True) “I’m really worried about those who are stuck in places like Mykolaiv,” he told the Independent as he sat with his social worker Liudmyla. “When I first met my social worker, I could not stand it, I was so sick. The treatment saved my life. “I’m worried about what will happen to the supplies if this continues.” His fears are shared by 43-year-old Oleg, who also became addicted as a teenager and discovered that he was infected with HIV in his thirties. “In the end it will be the Russians who will stop our treatment, which would be a disaster,” he said. Doctors and social workers, meanwhile, are working hard to ensure their services do not stop. For Iryna, that means finding creative ways to get supplies to those most in need, despite the bombing. “For many of us, we do not know if we will wake up tomorrow, if the next afternoon will come,” he says as he prepares for another day working in a war zone. “But today we work, because we have to.” The Independent has a proud campaign history for the rights of the most vulnerable and we first launched our “Welcome Refugees” campaign during the war in Syria in 2015. Now, as we renew our campaign and start this report on In the wake of the unfolding Ukrainian crisis, we call on the government to move faster and faster to secure aid. To learn more about our Refugee Campaign, click here. To sign the application click here. If you would like to donate, click here for our GoFundMe page.
