Outside, the blue-and-yellow carriages are indistinguishable from the dozens of Soviet-era trains carrying millions of refugees fleeing war-torn regions of Ukraine.
But this is completely intentional.
After all, this ambulance train, which carries goods, is even more vulnerable to Russian air strikes on the country’s railways.
On board are innocent children, women and retirees, badly wounded by bullets and bombings during Vladimir Putin’s deadly attack on their once peaceful homes and villages.
The Daily Mail joined the train last week when it arrived at a secret location on the outskirts of Lviv, where dozens of paramedics were waiting on a platform in the spring sun.
There was hope and relief in the air.
Finally, after a difficult 24-hour road spanning 700 miles, exhausted patients with horrific injuries were hastily removed from the train, loaded onto stretchers and wheelchairs, put in ambulances and taken to nearby hospitals for rescue.
The Ukrainian government says Russian troops have killed or injured tens of thousands of civilians since the invasion began in late February.
The Kremlin denies an attack on civilians, but hospitals are struggling to cope with the huge number of wounded in the east.
Therefore, the charity “Doctors Without Borders” (“Doctors Without Borders”) came up with a great solution – to put them on a medical train to evacuate them to the relative safety of Lviv.
In the conditions of constant threat of Russian air strikes, the passengers of the brigade of tireless, brave medics are taken care of around the clock.
The train has rescued about 400 people since it began plying last month, and each passenger provided another free bed at hospitals near the front line.
“We have never done anything like this before,” said Christopher Stokes, head of the British charity’s emergency group in Ukraine.
“I don’t think medical trains have been used since World War II.”
Mr Stokes explains how eight carriages were converted in just three weeks and converted into a modern hospital.
Five resuscitation beds were installed.
There are two carriages with eight beds and another to transport the walking wounded and family members.
The charity had to widen the car door so that the beds could be inserted and taken out.
The floors have been reinforced to handle a two-ton diesel generator, plus fuel and another 1.9-ton battery to keep the entire medical kit working.
One of the cars was equipped with seven oxygen generators that purify the air.
However, despite all this state-of-the-art kit, the old heating system of the old train is still powered by charcoal from the fireman on board each car.
Ukrainian Railways provides personnel and an electric locomotive that pulls cars at a steady speed of 60 miles per hour.
There are no showers, but there are enough bunks so that 20 employees can sleep for several hours during a 48-hour trip to Zaporozhye.
“You move, the patient moves, everything moves,” says Belgian nurse Margot Barrot, 31, when she explains how difficult it can be to put intravenous drips.
Doctors look exhausted when they get off the train in Lviv.
It went through the glove of Russian planes to rescue 22 wounded from Bakhmut, a city at the forefront of fighting in the Donbas.
After an examination on the platform, medics head to the hotel to lower their heads for the night before repeating the trip the next day.
Mentally, as well as physically, exhausting – there is a trained psychiatrist on board.
“My holiday is to take a shower,” says Dr. Stig Valrevens, a Swede who is the medical manager on the train.
Among those who splashed was 15-year-old Igor Bilyansky, a skinny guy from Siversk on the front line.
His neck and face were covered with bandages after he was hit by a shell in his garden.
Climbed into the ambulance, he said: “There was a shelling. I started running outside the house. I was covered by an explosive wave. I was hit by a splinter and I lost consciousness. He regained consciousness and saw a lot of blood. My grandmother was in front of me, and I started screaming. “
Igor will need plastic surgery, but was lucky to survive.
His only family was Valentina’s grandmother – his mother had left for Russia before the war and was not allowed to go home.
87-year-old Nina Dubovik became the oldest patient.
Her daughter-in-law Valentina, 60, said: “All the time rocket” Hail “. One got into our house, and my mother-in-law’s face burned. There was a big fire. We almost suffocated. “
28-year-old Lviv paramedic Raksalana Pailyshyn says: “What these people went through is awful. It’s an evil that can’t be put into words, but I hope they are safe now. “
https://thewest.com.au/news/conflict/war-in-ukraine-secret-train-transporting-injured-civilians-to-hospital–c-6816615
