Ukrainian nurses call for continued solidarity in the face of unrelenting attacks

Nearly four years of full-scale war has pushed Ukraine’s healthcare system to its limits, Kris Parker explains. Hundreds of thousands of combined military and civilian casualties, frequent Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, and systemic underfunding of hospitals have posed significant challenges to those working in healthcare. And a recent increase in Russian air attacks on energy infrastructure only compounds the austere and dangerous conditions.

In the midst of these conditions, medical professionals, especially nurses, are engaging in grassroots organizing. In Chernihiv, a city in the north of Ukraine near the border of Belarus and Russia, nurses organized through Be Like We Are are calling on supporters to help fundraise for critical equipment. In response, the U.S.-based Ukrainian NGO Kryla, with support from the Ukraine Solidarity Network, has launched a campaign to help fundraise for the beleaguered nurses, while attempting to strengthen relationships between unions in the U.S. and nurses organized in the Be Like We Are network.

 

Nearly four years of full-scale war has pushed Ukraine’s healthcare system to its limits. Hundreds of thousands of combined military and civilian casualties, frequent Russian attacks on civilian infrastructure, and systemic underfunding of hospitals have posed significant challenges to those working in healthcare. A recent increase in Russian air attacks on energy infrastructure, as the fifth winter of full-scale war quickly approaches, only compounds the austere and dangerous conditions.

In Chernihiv, a city in the north of Ukraine near the border of Belarus and Russia, nurses organized through a grassroots network called Be Like We Are (formerly known as Be Like Nina) are calling on supporters throughout Ukraine and abroad to help fundraise for critical equipment at the Mykola Halytskyi Nizhyn Central City Hospital. In response, the U.S.-based Ukrainian NGO Kryla, with support from the Ukraine Solidarity Network, has launched a campaign to help fundraise for the beleaguered nurses, while attempting to strengthen relationships between unions in the U.S. and nurses organized in the Be Like We Are network.

“Nurses are vital workers and are the backbone of any society. Ukrainian nurses are especially under strain due to the Russian invasion,” says Kryla co-founder Denys Bondar. “Join me in assisting them in helping the sick and wounded. There will be no Ukraine without nurses!

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine occurred in the midst of contested efforts to reform Ukraine’s hospitals and healthcare system along largely neoliberal lines, hitting an already fragile system with the hammer of war. Consequently, hospitals across Ukraine have consistently appealed to volunteer and mutual aid networks for assistance with critical medicines and equipment to meet the extreme demands of the largest war in Europe since 1945. One in ten hospitals were damaged during the first year of the full-scale war alone, while this past July, Physicians for Human Rights documented the 2,000th attack on Ukraine’s healthcare infrastructure.

A state-run hospital founded in 1894, the Mykola Halytskyi Nizhyn Central City Hospital serves as a cluster hospital for the region, with departments for cardiac, neurological, pediatric, surgical, and trauma care, amongst other specialties. Staff provides care for roughly 500 patients daily, though often without the modern medical equipment that can make working under adverse conditions more bearable.

One piece of equipment nurses are currently fundraising for is a Fully Automatic Biochemistry Analyzer, the НТІ BioChem FC-360, which would allow the hospital to increase its capacity for biochemical testing by a multiple of up to 20x. The price tag for one of these critical tools runs up to $38,000.

Ivan Korosko, General Director of Nizhyn Hospital explains,

We are using an old analyzer that can perform only 20-40 tests per hour. Sometimes it breaks down—tests have to be redone. It also frequently needs repairs, which all adds up to wasted time. Every day, about 500 patients receive care at our hospital. There are emergency cases when a high-quality analysis is needed immediately. In those situations, we have to send patients to private laboratories so that the doctor can make an accurate diagnosis.

Only sixty miles from the Russian border, Chernihiv experienced deadly attacks in the opening stages of the 2022 invasion, with critical battles occurring on the city’s outskirts. Ukrainian defenders managed to hold back Russian columns of tanks, preventing them from advancing further towards the capital Kyiv, despite enduring siege conditions. Dozens of civilians were killed in Russian attacks before they were forced to withdraw in April 2022. The following three and a half years have seen continuous air attacks on the city, with one recent attack on energy infrastructure plunging the entire city into darkness.

Be Like Nina, the former name of Be Like We Are, formed in 2019 to protest the hospital closures, staff cuts, and low pay that characterised working conditions amid efforts to reform Ukraine’s public healthcare sector. Since cutting their teeth organizing protests and events during the height of Covid, the network has continued to grow following the 2022 Russian invasion, with their Facebook group now containing over 90,000 members. Over the last three years, members of the network have continued to organize and advocate for healthcare workers, developing international support in the process. Ukraine’s parliament has successfully used the war to justify rolling back labor rights, emphasizing the need for continued organizing amidst the ongoing attacks.

In the U.S., activists with Kryla and the Ukraine Solidarity Network have been attempting to strengthen relationships between organized nurses in the two countries, with growing success.

In September the Minnesota Nurses United voted to endorse the campaign and make a donation, while the Michigan Nurses Association is also considering the same. National Nurses United, the largest professional association and nurses union in the U.S., recently issued a statement calling for solidarity with Ukrainians and sent a letter to Trump demanding he support “a permanent ceasefire, withdrawal of all Russian forces, diplomatic negotiations that respect Ukrainian sovereignty, and just and lasting peace in the country.”

Elizabeth Lalasz has been a registered nurse for over thirteen years. An activist in National Nurses United, she has been working to raise donations within her union following the launch of Kryla’s fundraising campaign, highlighting the importance of international solidarity in times of crisis:

There is not a cutoff at a border; we do the same work. We may do it in a different place and speak a different language, but we do the same work. And it’s not just work. We do it for a reason, so we have to reach out and build solidarity. We have to reach out and fundraise, because all of this shows how little governments really care about any of us who are the people who do the actual work.

You see what happens in Gaza and you can’t disconnect it, so what’s happening to the healthcare system in Ukraine as it gets bombed? It’s not dissimilar from Gaza. We have to help each other because they refuse to do so, or they destroy the infrastructure that allows us to do what we need to do, and we’re going to fight that, and we’re going to make sure people have what they need.

In Vermont, state senator Tanya Vyhovsky has also been an outspoken supporter of the nurses’ campaign, calling on those who can to make a donation. On the ground in Ukraine, the situation remains extremely difficult. Although suffering huge numbers of casualties, Russian forces continue to make slow but deadly advances in Ukraine’s east. Attempts to negotiate a ceasefire and end to the war have failed in the face of Russian obstinance and demands for Ukraine’s surrender of the strategically important Donetsk oblast, as well as Kherson, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. Trump, for his part, has done little more than insist Ukraine meet Russian demands, while drastically reshaping and decreasing the amount of assistance to Ukraine.

The Keil Institute, which tracks government aid to Ukraine, recently released a report detailing a drop in military aid in 2025, despite the introduction of the new NATO-led initiative to provide military equipment to Ukraine’s strained forces. The fight for self-determination in Ukraine takes many forms and faces a multitude of enemies, and in a reality characterized by the brutality of the Russian war machine and the cynical, corrupt opportunism of sections of Ukraine’s own leadership, the continued support for those struggling in Ukraine remains as necessary as ever.

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Featured Image credit: Kris Parker; modified by Tempest.