The doctor fighting for women’s health on Ukraine’s front line

In a rural village close to the Ukrainian confrontation line, a group of women on the waiting list quietly outside a purple and white ambulance, waiting for the doctor to see his head dyed in blue and yellow from the Ukrainian flag.

For many of them, it’s the first time they have seen the doctor since the war started more than three years ago.

Since 2022, Dr. Sirhi Bakshiev, 53, has conducted more than 1,000 gynecological examination of women throughout the front areas of his portable clinic – named “female shuttle” and full with a bright pink examination chair.

“This is a human voluntary task. It is for people who need help, in places where there are no doctors or hospitals, and they are completely free,” he says.

The war with Russia has put great pressure on the health care system in Ukraine, with more than 1940 attacks on health facilities since the invasion, according to the World Health Organization (WHO) – which makes it the highest number in any humanitarian crisis so far – with a significant increase in those attacks since December 2023.

When the war began, Dr. Bakshiev, a gynecologist and gynecologist, initially spent his days in a hideout in Kiev that helps to deliver children with low bombs.

He says that the idea of ​​a clinic on the road came to him, after the medical volunteering tasks later revealed the confrontation line about the lack of facilities because medical centers and hospitals have been fully destroyed.

He says: “We went to Kharkif and Chernehif, who were very affected, and the most difficult thing was unable to provide gynecology because there were no tools and equipment, because everything was ruined.”

Dr. Pakchyev and his team will have to use anything available as an examination table, including old sofas, which means that he will have to kneel on the ground for exams.

Today, he wanders in the electric car, it is clear that Dr. Bakshiev is incredibly proud of his capabilities: it has been designed with everything that he and his team might need in these remote areas, including an ultrasound and medical equipment to carry out simple surgical operations.

During a two-day task, the team can perform up to 80 vaginal endoscopes-where they examine the cervix and broilers of the signs of cancerous tissue or before cancer.

The work – which is often implemented in secret – is very important for people who live in these rural and remote areas on the confrontation line.

The numbers presented by the Ministry of Public Health in Ukraine appear and seen by the BBC their discovery rates of ovarian and cervical cancer by 17 % and 10 %, respectively since 2020.

And when doctors, like Dr. Bakshiev, enter these areas for tests, they find a higher height than the average malignant tumors.

On average, up to 4 % of all women are diagnosed with malignant tumors after examining them, according to Fraida Ukraine, volunteers in the medical organization.

Dr. Ulaana SuPron was the Minister of Health in Ukraine from 2016 to 2019. She says that there is concern about the “esteemed bomb” of health results as the war continued.

“In the public health community, there is definitely a lot of concern about what will happen with the continuation of the war,” she says.

“Not only in physical health, but also mental health – because there is continuous stress, and a continuous psychological shock.”

Dr. Superon says that the government was able to rebuild up to 964 medical facilities affected by Russia.

“They are working closely with the World Health Organization and with other international organizations to try to reach a plan on how to rebuild the health system that was present before the invasion of Russia.”

Despite the diagnosis of cancer itself in September 2024, Dr. Bakshiev continues to volunteer and provide treatment for women throughout the country.

“Regardless of the medical examination, you also hear them because many patients have stories about how the Russians attack their villages,” he says.

“So we are not only doctors, we are treated for these patients.”