Sustaining lifesaving healthcare in eastern Ukraine

With funding from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief), UNOPS is delivering specialized medical equipment to help healthcare workers in eastern Ukraine save lives under severe wartime conditions.

The road toward Kharkiv bears the unmistakable scars of ongoing war. Wrecked roadside infrastructure, fuel stations, and warehouses sit surrounded by overgrown summer greenery.

In Kharkiv itself, just 30 kilometers from the Russian border, air raid sirens warning of incoming drones and missiles are daily background noise. For the regional healthcare system, this environment creates an overwhelming double challenge: treating a surge in complex blast injuries while managing the cumulative physical and emotional stress on the local population.

To expand capacity where systems are strained most, UNOPS partnered with the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSrelief) to procure and deliver critical diagnostic and surgical machinery. The initial equipment arrived in the summer of 2026, with further high-capacity deliveries rolling out through the end of the year.

Kharkiv & Izium support at a glance

• 30 km from active frontlines in Kharkiv and Izium
• +15,000 annual surgeries supported at just one regional diagnostic centre
• 24/7 care: Off-the-grid mobile diagnostic capability during active power blackouts and air raids
• Multi-facility relief: Delivering critical machinery across city and regional healthcare facilities

Mobility for long-term recovery

“Living with a prosthesis is a skill that needs to be learned and mastered.” 
Andrii Chuhaiev, Medical Director at a regional rehabilitation centre.

At a regional rehabilitation facility in Kharkiv, multidisciplinary teams of orthopaedists, physical therapists, and psychologists work alongside patients for months at a time, helping them adapt to limb prostheses.

To support routine monitoring without causing patients unnecessary pain or movement, the centre received a battery-powered, mobile X-ray unit on wheels.

“The new equipment opens up new abilities,” explains Dr. Chuhaiev. “Our patients often have multiple injuries, and the mobile X-ray allows us to check on all of them. It’s also mobile and autonomous, which means we can operate it in the shelter during an emergency, and it will keep working even if a blackout occurs.” 

Precision in the operating room

A few blocks away, at a major regional hospital performing over 15,000 surgeries annually, doctors face a different operational hurdle: treating multiple critical trauma cases arriving at the exact same time.

A newly delivered surgical C-arm X-ray machine now provides surgeons with real-time, live imaging of bone structures during procedures.

“We are now dealing with trauma that we had not been exposed to before the war,” says Anton, head of X-ray and diagnostics department. A challenge we face is that when an incident happens, multiple patients in difficult conditions arrive at the same time. The hospital needs to be equipped and staffed to treat them simultaneously. The new equipment addresses this issue for us.”

Restoring essential care on the frontlines

South-east of Kharkiv, in the town of Izium ‒ less than 30 kilometers from active combat ‒ the local hospital continues to serve its community despite suffering severe damage earlier in the war.

UNOPS and KSrelief delivered a specialized biochemical blood analyser and medical refrigeration units to stabilize the hospital’s  blood bank, a vital lifeline for emergency surgical care.

“The resilience of the medical staff we have met in Izium hospital is incredible,” noted Marysia Zapasnik, Head of Programme at UNOPS Ukraine and East Europe. “UNOPS is proud that together with KSrelief we are able to provide them with the precise tools they need to do their jobs safely and effectively.”

Turning emergency response into sustainable care

In the rehabilitation wards of Kharkiv and the operating rooms of Izium, every new piece of equipment represents more than modern technology ‒ it buys vital time, protects dignity, and keeps life-saving care accessible under fire. By equipping frontline medical teams with tools built for blackouts and crisis conditions, UNOPS and KSrelief are standing shoulder-to-shoulder with Ukraine's health workers, ensuring resilience is backed by the resources needed to save lives.