Ukrainian medics bring war-damaged ambulance to Manchester and Liverpool

Combat medics from the Ukrainian frontline are visiting Manchester and Liverpool alongside a war-damaged ambulance this weekend. The tour is scheduled to commemorate the second anniversary of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2024.

It’s a unique opportunity for the public, media and politicians to hear their powerful testimony first-hand and to be inspired by the everyday acts of bravery by frontline medical personnel. The ambulance is a stark exhibit of the realities of life on the frontline: pockmarked with bullet holes and shrapnel damage.

Medics have been repeatedly targeted during the war. Almost 200 medics have been killed with Russian weapons as they tried to save lives and over 2,000 attacks have targeted health centres, hospitals and ambulances over the past two years.

One of the medics, Iryna ‘Lucky’ Knyzhnyk, 46 from Vinnytsia, Central Ukraine, said:

“The frontline in Ukraine might feel distant for some people in the UK, but we Ukrainians have felt the weight of support and solidarity from the British public and British politicians from across the political spectrum – and it means so much to us.

I’m looking forward to meeting people from all over the UK to talk about the situation in Ukraine, and about my own experiences as a frontline medic, in the hope that we can maintain and grow the special bond that exists between our countries and the solidarity that the UK has shown since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion two years ago."