Hanna Makarenkova is the director of the city hospital in Zaporizhzhia. Over 2,000 medical professionals work under her leadership in the frontline city. Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the hospital has provided assistance to 25,000 affected patients. 

“Our work is constant adaptation, a chronic state of exhaustion. It’s emotionally difficult,” says Makarenkova about the changes in the hospital’s life. She was at an airport in Kyiv when the full-scale war began; she was supposed to fly out for a vacation on 24 February 2022 at 7 a.m. Instead, Makarenkova returned to Zaporizhzhia and went to work the very next morning. 

Makarenkova recalls that one of the most difficult challenges was the evacuation of residents from Mariupol and other cities – wounded, exhausted people with pneumonia and bronchitis who had lost everything. Later, patients with complex mine-blast injuries, which the staff had not previously encountered, began arriving at the hospital. 

From the first days of the war, the hospital received international assistance with medications, equipment, and training. “It’s valuable to know that you’re not alone here,” Makarenkova says. “We didn’t have experience working with complex injuries, but they responded and trained us,” the medical director recalls. 

Health care professionals in Zaporizhzhia work under the constant threat of attack. During the first year of the full-scale war, the city was hit by more than 400 missile strikes. One of the hospital buildings was damaged by a blast wave. The city’s energy infrastructure also suffered significant damage and destruction. In 2025, thanks to EU funding, UNDP provided Zaporizhzhia with two cogeneration units. They ensure an uninterrupted power supply for more than 100 social institutions, including the hospital where Makarenkova works.