Chernihiv, less than 90 km from the Belarusian border, is located on the north-south axis taken on Thursday February 24 by Russian troops who entered Ukraine to target Kiev and try to encircle the capital. In this combat zone, doctors, parents and volunteers are fighting to keep the hospital’s pediatric oncology service running.
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When the war was still only a hypothesis, and daily life was going on in Chernihiv, against the background of maneuvers by Russian troops on Belarusian soil, Serhii Zasimenko already had only one idea in mind: how to put safe for his little patients, if things were to go wrong.
The war accelerated everything. 11 children aged 2 to 15 were lowered into a damp cellar not adapted to the needs of these seriously ill children. Serhii Zasimenko, the voluntary administrator of this hospital, recounts, his voice choking, his daily struggle for patients to have access to care: ” Every day, you have to look for new contacts. People bake bread and bring it to us, others offer us medicine. We pick it all up carefully. Everyone is sick of being in caves, but I spoke to the kids today, and they said they weren’t scared. They’ve gotten used to it and see that they’re surrounded by kind people they can rely on. They remain hopeful. Many of my friends stayed by my side, they help me as volunteers. I’m very proud of them, because they could have escaped, but they are there, by my side “.
Cancer patients from the children’s hospital in Chernihiv, northern Ukraine, have been sheltering in this basement since the Russian offensive began. Their city is under heavy shelling. They say they currently have enough medicine to last 3-4 days.
#Ukraine #f24 pic.twitter.com/gLcHqpVgaU—Catherine Norris Trent (@cntrentF24) March 1, 2022
The inhabitants of Chernihiv come under heavy rocket fire. In recent days, a shell landed 200 meters from the hospital. Under these conditions, resources are beginning to run out and even if all goodwill is mobilized, the risk is to find oneself without painkillers very quickly, fears Serhii Zasimenko. He also works for the charity, Evum who helps pediatric oncology services and has joined a territorial defense unit to fight, if necessary, with arms in hand. But the priority for him today is to continue to find medicine and food. From his cellar, in the midst of sick children, their parents and the doctors who watch over them, he begs for international aid to get the children out of the war zone. With their own strength, the hospital volunteers will not succeed: the governor of the region, Viatcheslav Chaus, announced on his Facebook page that all exits from the city had been mined.
► to read also, the other reports of our special correspondents in Tchernihiv
In Chernihiv, the population remains calm despite the Russian threat
The concern of Belarusian exiles in Chernihiv
The population in uncertainty is preparing
