The only way to reconcile

Elizaveta Glinka, better known as Dr. Liza, went to Donetsk to deliver humanitarian aid to the victims and purchase medicines and equipment for local hospitals. What she had to face there - she told The New Times

I arrived in Donetsk on May 28, the train from Moscow went around 3 hours longer than planned. From the station I went to the hospitals where the wounded are. I have been to two of them and I must say that the medical care there is organized very professionally, the specialists are very qualified. Unfortunately, this is not the case everywhere. In general, Donetsk is a mining city, where hospitals are provided for disasters. Fires happen in the mines, so there are many burn departments that can take a lot of people. Those who came here have the usual military wounds: bullet, explosive. And craniocerebral bullets too. There are patients with eye damage. There are also women among the wounded.

I'm a helper, not a checker. I spoke to the doctor and asked, "What do you need?" He gave me a sheet, where it was written what medicines are needed. There are huge difficulties with customs clearance on both sides: both Russian and Ukrainian. So I just bought it all here, in pharmacies. It was possible to completely cover the needs of the ophthalmological hospital, where people with visual impairment are treated, and two departments - intensive care and surgery. Now the most important thing is the purchase of surgical instruments in the blockaded cities. Where help is difficult to reach. I will pass everything you need through checkpoints.

The health situation in general in the East of Ukraine is running. It was financed, frankly, not as a priority, and, unfortunately, it lasted for many years.

What is currently lacking: both expensive, specific antibiotics and broad-spectrum antibiotics, intravenous drugs, drains, surgical kits, urinary, subclavian, intravenous catheters. There are no painkillers and insulin syringes. One of these days we will buy special medical equipment - organ staplers. When injured, they sew the intestines. And with such injuries, people are constantly brought from dangerous areas.

Here the situation changes hourly: you never know what is happening outside the place where you are. In the morning it felt like everything was fine. And suddenly a fighter appears in the sky.

Unfortunately, many doctors have left their jobs. Everyone knows this and no one denies it. Those who are now left to work are real ascetics. Very courageous, very calm. The patient was admitted unconscious, in camouflage - no one asks for whom he fought. Help is provided in the right way to anyone who needs it.

In one of the hospitals, a doctor told me that journalists sometimes come under the guise of helping. They take lists, promise to help, photograph everything slowly, record conversations and leave. And this is when you really need help!

Nobody sent me here. Deputy Sergei Mironov gave me a lot of money - he simply transferred it to my fund and said: "If you want, go." Different people send money. Businessman Mikhail Prokhorov issued me a card (plastic) so that I could buy everything calmly. We are also trying to resolve the issue of a humanitarian corridor with him.

I met a surgeon here who has a charitable foundation. It is also non-state, we are working to cooperate on an ongoing basis. Now this is the only way to reconcile - on the basis of charity.

On my “front” there is the unification of all parties, and I think that this is correct, because the situation is like this. Some help anonymously, some don't. I am now opening two accounts in Donetsk for money transfers from individuals. They will have the abbreviations DL - "Doctor Lisa." The Moscow account accepts money for the victims in Ukraine, always marked “to help the wounded” - after all, we have statutory activities and do not focus all funds on one goal now. If there is a need in Kyiv, I will go there too. No sick people should suffer.