What Morgan McMonagle remembers most about the eight-hour journey, mostly on back roads, from the Polish border to Kyiv, is the empty playgrounds.
The vascular and trauma surgeon spent two weeks in Ukraine as part of an NGO delegation training local medics and is hoping to return to the country early in 2023.
“We drove through towns and villages and the thing I noticed when we passed playgrounds and schools was that there weren’t any children. And there were a lot of crops dead in the fields, wheat and sunflowers that weren’t harvested,” he said.
Many times since his return to Ireland, the doctor who is based at Waterford University Hospital has been reminded of the ongoing threats for the people of Ukraine.
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He and about 25 colleagues from the US-based International Medical Corps were there to train local medics, and much of the training was done in Zaporizhzhia, which is 35km from the frontline and the same distance from the nuclear power station.
There was an undercurrent there, a feeling people were being taken advantage of financially, for example they were charging a few euro to use a toilet
A month after he came home, the nuclear plant was rocked by shelling, something which was a constant concern during his visit.
“Our security said it was too dangerous to stay in Zaporizhzhia at night so we travelled up and down from Dnipro, about an hour and a half drive. Zaporizhzhia was shelled quite heavily.
“Certainly during the day we spent a lot of time in the bomb shelter. You could hear the bombs and missiles hitting and you could feel the vibrations.”
During the two weeks the international group were bound by an 11pm-6am curfew and had a telephone app which alerted them when missile attacks were imminent. “We had a general rule that if your alarm went off at night and you could hear an explosion, you’d go to the bomb shelter. If the alarm went off and you couldn’t hear an explosion you could stay where you were.”
When Dr McMonagle walked across the border from Poland he saw a 16km line of vans and trucks waiting to cross from Ukraine.
The long queues of vehicles on both sides of the border were “part of the reason we crossed on foot”. Having entered and exited Ukraine via Poland he was struck by the vulnerability of the people at the border crossing.
“Like any international borders there were a lot of refugees, a lot of pop-up shops, selling mobile phones and transport. There was an undercurrent there, a feeling people were being taken advantage of financially, for example they were charging a few euro to use a toilet.
“It was mostly Ukrainian people there trying to get out.”
Dr McMonagle and his colleagues from the International Medical Corps were there to train doctors‚ nurses and paramedics in mass casualty planning, haemorrhage control and CBRNE (chemical, biological, radiation, nuclear and explosives). “That’s managing the sort of injuries you would expect with that sort of warfare,” explained the Cavan native who is the Health Service Executive’s lead for mass casualty planning.
The group arrived in Ukraine the weekend the bridge to Crimea was destroyed, and as a result of the ramped up security about 90 per cent of the courses were given in bomb shelters. They visited Kyiv, Dnipro and Zaporizhia, all areas under heavy attack.
“Certainly during the day we spent a lot of time in the bomb shelter. You could hear the bombs and missiles hitting and you could feel the vibrations.”
The majority of the war wounded who are soldiers are treated in secret frontline hospitals which NGOs do not generally have access to.
“I do hope a return visit will happen in February or March, perhaps to a frontline hospital,” he said.
The surgeon said he went because it was something he felt strongly about.
“It is a completely illegal war. There are so many violations of the Geneva conventions, non-military targets being hit and it is affecting Europe, affecting commerce, affecting oil, affecting everything”.