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By AFP
ZAPORIZHZHIA (Ukraine): For more than two months, Dr Farad Ali-Shakh has spent his waking hours tending wounded Ukrainian soldiers and civilians. He also treats injured Russians, albeit reluctantly, who could be part of future prisoner exchanges.
This young doctor says he “practically lives” at the military hospital in Zaporizhzhia, a large city in southern Ukraine which lies just a few dozen kilometres from the front.
At night, the distant thud of shelling can sometimes be heard here.
Since Russia largely withdrew from northern Ukraine to refocus on the eastern Donbas region and the south, this industrial city has become a rallying point for those fleeing the violence or wounded in war.
Ali-Shakh says he works 20 hours every day, which can mean operating on up to 20 patients, one after the other.
Since the Russian invasion on February 24, thick tarpaulins have been hung up in front of the hospital’s windows to make it less visible from the skies at night when it could become a target for Russian forces.
But the tarpaulins are also there to protect people from flying glass in the event of a bombing after the first houses in Zaporizhzhia were hit in a Russian strike last week.
It means the hospital is largely in darkness most of the time, even during the day. Conversations take place by the light of a desk lamp and patients’ X-rays give off a ghostly hue.
And the scant light makes the photos on the doctor’s mobile look even more grisly.
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