An ambulance sent to Ukraine after fundraising by an A&E consultant from Cardiff has been attacked by a missile. The ambulance travelled more than 2,000 miles to the city of Mikolayev to help administer vital emergency healthcare amid the Russian invasion before it was shelled.
Dr Mateo Szmidt, an emergency medicine consultant at Prince Charles Hospital in Merthyr Tydfil, believes it was one of two vehicles sent from Wales in March. The consultant launched a GoFundMe campaign in March to purchase the first ambulance.
Dr Szmidt said he hoped something could be salvaged from the vehicle, which he believed had been near Odesa for three weeks. Reposting what appears to be CCTV footage of the attack on his Instagram page the doctor said he was "sad and angry".
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He said: "I am Sad and Angry as this just shows how the Russians have no conscious about attacking civilian sites. Our 1st Ambulance that made it all the way to Mikolayev has been shelled at. I am waiting to hear if our Ambulance is salvageable. Will keep you posted." It is currently who shelled the emergency vehicle.
Dr Szmidt's fundraising page has now raised more than £26,000 to send emergency vehicles to the war-torn country. Dr Szmidt says there are hopes to send a third ambulance to the country.
Speaking to WalesOnline in March, Dr Szmidt explained that he came up with the idea after hearing of a similar initiative in Poland. "I thought that if they're in need of these ambulances to transport patients the ambulances we use [in the NHS] and that get decommissioned are very good," he said.
His initiative comes as part of a wider effort by Cwm Taf Morgannwg health board, which manages Prince Charles Hospital. He said the health board had collected personal items from across its hospitals, such as clothes, and added that "seven big crates of medical supplies" had just been sent to Ukraine.
Dr Szmidt explained that NHS ambulances get sold on once they have been withdrawn from service and that he bought one that has been decommissioned from a private motor company. "I did try to get an ambulance donated [by the health board], but unfortunately, with the current crisis with ambulances, there are no ambulances being decommissioned from the two sites I spoke to," he said. The cost of an ambulance varies from £6,000 to £7,000.
More than ten million people have now fled their homes in Ukraine because of the Russian invasion, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. As well as the four million who have left for neighbouring countries, another estimated 6.5 million people are thought to be displaced inside the war-torn country itself.
