The Russian invasion has triggered a major health crisis in Ukraine. The destruction of infrastructure, the displacement of millions of people, and the large numbers of injured in front line fighting and shelling across the country, have overwhelmed the Ukrainian healthcare system, depriving the population of adequate medical care. We discussed these issues with three representatives of “UK-Med”, a humanitarian organisation that provides healthcare on the ground in Ukraine. They explained the problems they are dealing with and how their activities are carried out across the country.

Interview with Svitlana Horbunova-Ruban from the City Council of Kharkiv responsible for health and social protection. Interviewer: Roman Kryvko.

An interview with Olena Chernenko, founder and CEO of the Ukrainian Medical Alliance. Interviewer: Adam Reichardt.

The pandemic and political crisis has added new dimensions to the health care profession in Belarus.

The Sputnik V vaccine was an incredible achievement for Russian science. The measure of success however, will depend on the ability to vaccinate a majority of the Russian population in order to reach herd immunity.

Interview with Aleksandra Reshmedilova, a leading political expert at the Civil Diplomcy Fund. Interviewer: New Eastern Europe.

Romania’s healthcare system is seriously ill. A combination of poverty, corruption and the remnants of communism, exacerbated by the mass amounts of doctors moving abroad after the country joined the European Union in 2007, has led to a system that leaves patients in dire straits.

It was the middle of the night when Roxana Popescu’s phone woke her. Her aunt on the other side of the line sounded concerned. “She told me she was at the Bucharest University Hospital with my 26-year-old cousin, Catalin,” Popescu says. “He was in a coma.” A long story preceded this alarming and undesirable phone call – a story that, in many ways, demonstrates what is wrong with Romania’s healthcare system, and in a broader sense mirrors what is happening in a society that is attempting to liberate itself from its communist past.