The incident occurred when two members of the team, who are Ukrainians, responded to an emergency call. The ambulance was equipped with an alarm system, and the team discovered that they were being followed by a drone.
They stopped and jumped out. When they jumped out, the ambulance was hit by a drone. They are alive, and we are so grateful and relieved about that, says Dahlberg Markstedt.
One side of the ambulance was destroyed in the attack and will likely need to be replaced. Fortunately, there were no civilian patients in the ambulance at the time.
Human safari
The attack was targeted, according to Dahlberg Markstedt.
"This is an example of the human safari that we have seen many examples of, where you target civilians and try to hit them. It is a clear violation of the laws of war," she says.
The Geneva Convention says that medical transport and medical personnel are protected in war and may not be targets, something Russian forces have not respected.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has verified over 3,140 attacks on Ukrainian healthcare systems since the full-scale invasion began.
In addition to Russian drone attacks on medical transport, there are other challenges in the work.
The roads are extremely worn and poorly maintained. It is dangerous to operate in frontline environments and it is difficult to reach civilians who need help. But people suffering from all kinds of illnesses need to get to hospitals, even though it is a war.
Risky environment
The frontline city of Kherson, on the Dnipro River in southern Ukraine, was retaken by Ukrainians a few months after the Russian occupation in 2022. Today, the city is divided, with Russian forces controlling the eastern side. The western side is regularly shelled by Russia with artillery and drones.
This places enormous demands on relief work in Kherson.
The operations are conducted on the Ukrainian side underground, where we have activity centers for children and young people. It is a very risky environment in Kherson, says Malin Dahlberg Markstedt.
