Vanya Chuhlibov, 9, looks at a mobile phone at the cancer ward of the main hospital of Chernihiv, a Ukrainian city cut off from the outside world by heavy Russian assault.Photos: Sergey Zosimenko via Anton Skyba
The kids being treated for cancer at the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital are running out of hope.
The northern Ukrainian city is now surrounded by the Russian army on all sides, residents say, and even if the roads were open they have been mined by the Ukrainian military. On Tuesday, Ukraine’s Parliament said Belarusian troops had entered the country and joined the Russian attack on the city.
The situation is dire for all 285,000 residents of Chernihiv, which sits just 70 kilometres from the Belarusian border. But it’s particularly grim for the 11 children stuck in the oncology ward of the local children’s hospital, as food and medicine become increasingly scarce.
“We actually don’t know how to survive here. It’s unreal. We don’t have any more resources,” said Serhiy Zosimenko, the head of Evum, a non-governmental organization that supports the children’s oncology ward. “They’re in tough condition and need evacuation.”
Serhiy Zosimenko, right, stands with some of the children and families trapped in the cancer ward.
The hospital is now down to its last eight ampoules of morphine and was running out of other painkillers. “And when the people are sick with cancer they need a lot of painkiller drugs,” Mr. Zosimenko said.
He is now one of about 40 people living 24 hours a day at the hospital, taking care of the children and stocking the bomb shelter in the basement, where the children and staff are relocated several times a day, with food, toys and games – and preparing to defend the hospital and the kids if it comes to that.
“We are ready to give our own lives, but not willing to give the lives of children,” he said in a video interview with The Globe and Mail, holding up his grandfather’s hunting rifle. He said there were five or six fathers who were also armed and ready for whatever comes. “The children have us, and we are willing to do what we can to protect them.”
Mr. Zosimenko said his organization has arranged for the 11 children – along with their mothers and doctors – to be allowed entry to Poland and Slovakia to continue their treatment. But there is currently no way out of Chernihiv.
“The problem is we can’t evacuate the kids from the ground, we can only evacuate them by air,” Mr. Zosimenko said.
He said his organization had appealed to the International Committee of the Red Cross, as well as the office of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, for help.
Patients and residents of Chernihiv hide in the shelter at the hospital.
Anna Shakhova, 2, is one of the youngest taking shelter in the hospital.
The oldest of the children on the evacuation list, which was shared with The Globe, is 15-year-old Valeria Livchanovska, who has Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
The rest of the children are under the age of 12 and are nearly all leukemia patients. The youngest, Mikita Vorobyov, a boy, and Anna Shakhova, a girl, are just two years old.
Mr. Zosimenko said the staff was working as hard as possible to keep the children’s spirits high.
“We covered them from this as much as possible. They understand what is going on, but they know they are not alone.”
Two days ago, a Grad rocket struck just 200 metres from the hospital, as Russian forces – unable to break through Ukrainian defences around the city – began shelling civilian areas.
Shortly after Mr. Zosimenko spoke to The Globe, all the staff and children in the cancer ward were forced to take refuge in the bomb shelter as air-raid sirens sounded through the city.
Vyacheslav Krot watches his son Vlad, 6 have a meal in the oncology department.
Another Chernihiv resident told The Globe the city is now completely surrounded.
“There is no evacuation. All exits have been mined by Ukrainian forces. We don’t have any opportunity to get out. Like Leningrad, we are locked in,” said Anna Palkova-Svirchevska, a 31-year-old psychologist, referring to the siege of the Soviet city during the Second World War.
She said she was in her home with her sister and parents and could hear near-constant rocket fire outside. “Our army is fighting hard. When the Russians fail to enter, they start terror by attacking apartment buildings, just attacking simple people.”
Mr. Zosimenko laughed at the idea that Russia would allow a humanitarian ceasefire to evacuate civilians such as the children in the cancer ward of the Chernihiv Regional Children’s Hospital.
“I understand that it’s not a war against military, it is a war of military against civilians,” he said. “If I don’t die here in the next two weeks, it’s going to be a miracle.”
Mark MacKinnon