Building resilience in Ukraine: as full-scale war continues

Kseniia Ostrizhna, a paramedic in Ukraine.

Meet Kseniia Ostrizhna

Kseniia Ostrizhna dreamed of becoming a medical worker since childhood. “When I was a child, I used to say, ‘As soon as I grow up, I will become a doctor’,” she recalls. Inspired by the life-saving work of ambulance crews, she was eager to join their ranks.  
 
To improve her skills, Kseniia participated in WHO traumatology trainings. 

“An incredible international team worked with us. They not only shared knowledge but also inspired us with their drive to advancement and their perspective on emergency medicine. It has energized me and deepened my understanding of emergency medicine,” Kseniia shares.

A CBRN exercise at Mykolaiv City Hospital No.3.

Skills that save lives

Just 30 km from the frontline, Mykolaiv City Hospital No. 3 provides trauma and burn care for the region. Ukraine continues to face risks related to chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) hazards. 

To mitigate these threats, hospital staff took part in a WHO-supported training session to prepare for a CBRN emergency, a crucial capability given the presence of Ukraine’s largest nuclear power plant in the region.  
 
Health-care workers were trained, in the context of a CBRN event, to safely manage and treat patients exposed to hazardous substances. They also learned how to apply skills in hazard awareness, decontamination and the use of personal protective equipment, while becoming adept at special forms of triage and the medical management of those affected.

Dr Dmytro Kolosov, Director of Mykolaiv City Hospital No. 3, speaks to WHO staff.

Turning training into resilience

Dr Dmytro Kolosov is the Director of Mykolaiv City Hospital No. 3. Through tabletop and simulation exercises, hospital staff were trained on appropriate safety measures, and response protocols for CBRN.

“The training provides more understanding of real events and helps to upgrade our skills. We are now ready for various scenarios,” he told us.

Artesans-ResQ and WHO staff transport a critically ill patient.

Safe transfers for critical-care patients

Safely transporting severely injured and critically ill patients requires a dedicated team of highly skilled health professionals, coordination and robust standard procedures. Every action undertaken by doctors and paramedics during one of these transfers must be precise. 
 
In Ukraine, Artesans-ResQ, a nongovernmental organization working closely with WHO, the Ministry of Health and the regional emergency medical services (EMS), supports transfers for trauma, neonatal and other critical-care patients – often over hundreds of kilometres within Ukraine, or across the border.
 
Through guidance and hands-on support, health-care workers are helping to embed these life-saving skills into the national EMS workforce. In May and June, Artesans-ResQ provided training in how to safely transfer severely injured and critically ill patients, for the regional EMS in Lviv. These professionals are supporting the medical evacuation operation, which has been ongoing for over 3 years and has served almost 6000 Ukrainian patients. 

“Having procedures and protocols in place, means we will be able to train medical staff involved in patient transportation accordingly and apply standardized procedures at each stage of patient care, during transportation and handover,” explained Nataliia Dorosheva, Head of Training at Zaporizhia Region EMS.

An actor plays a patient as part of a large-scale simulation exercise in the busy seaport of Odesa, Ukraine.

Stopping the spread of infectious diseases

To test how Ukraine’s health system can respond to a potential waterborne disease outbreak under the pressures of war and environmental risks, WHO supported a large-scale simulation exercise in the city of Odesa, a busy seaport.

The exercise imagined a disease outbreak that spread throughout a city with infrastructure damaged by war. It brought together health workers from different regions of the country. As the fictional outbreak evolved, participants from multiple health authorities tested their surveillance systems, rapid response teams, mobile laboratory capacity and inter-agency coordination.  
 
Outbreak simulation exercises like these help identify gaps in procedures and communication, ensuring that public health authorities can act quickly to prevent the spread of disease. 
 
By strengthening these systems, Ukraine is better equipped to protect communities from outbreaks – demonstrating that preparedness is not only about responding to crises, but early detection and prevention of diseases before they become widespread.

Health workers evaluate the safety of their hospital with the support of WHO.

Keeping hospitals safe and functioning

Since February 2022, WHO has documented more than 2600 attacks on health care in Ukraine, impacting health-care providers, supplies, facilities, warehouses and transport, including ambulances.  

To be better prepared for such emergencies, WHO, in collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, is providing guidance and support to war-affected hospitals in Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Kyiv and Mykolaiv as part of the “Strengthening hospital readiness in Ukraine” initiative.  

Experts guide hospital staff to conduct assessments of all areas, from basements to rooftops, operating theatres to power generators, mapping their vulnerabilities and potential areas for improvement. 

“Each crisis is different, but every time we respond, we learn. I hope we’ll never have to face it again, but now we’re more agile and better prepared,” shared a participant.

Hospitals like the Odesa Infectious Diseases Hospital are enhancing their preparedness plans to better protect public health.

Health security and planning

National risk profiling is one of the cornerstones of both the International Health Regulations (2005) and the Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030. 
 
In Ukraine, the Ministry of Health has made it a priority to strengthen national health emergency planning. In June 2025, a National Strategic Risk Assessment was launched to guide evidence-based planning and inform the update of all-hazard and hazard-specific preparedness, readiness and response plans at both national and subnational levels.
 
The insights and cross-sectoral dialogue generated through the risk assessment will feed directly into the revision of preparedness and response plans, including for rapid response teams, hospitals and emergency medical teams. 

Work on emergency preparedness in Ukraine would not be possible without the important contributions of donors and technical partners, including the Asia-Europe Foundation, the Government of Germany and the European Union.