Bloodied but unbowed

THE one hospital for the Russian city of Donetsk (not to be confused with the larger Donetsk in eastern Ukraine, 135 miles away) sits just a few miles from the border with Ukraine. Around 5pm on August 17th I was standing outside when a convoy of vehicles sped up to the entrance. Out spilled around 40 rebel fighters injured in battle against pro-Ukrainian forces. They had set out on the six-hour drive through eastern Ukraine and into Russia that morning. There was a man missing a leg, its stump wrapped in plaster; another had a large head wound, his eyes glassy and vacant. Several had the red pockmarked scars of shrapnel.

They had been expected. Medics from the Russian emergencies ministry, along with a handful of Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, walked among the minibuses that delivered the fighters and began to process the injured. The FSB officers questioned them about their wounds and experiences in the war, taking notes and handing the fighters forms to sign. A dozen or so would stay in the trauma ward here; the rest were sent in waiting ambulances for treatment at hospitals...Continue reading