Inna Lytvynenko always wears her bright orange body armour when she’s on an emergency call. Last July, the paramedic was dispatched to Kherson to treat a woman injured by a Russian drone. An FPV drone then crashed into her ambulance within seconds.
“I ran because I knew I would die,” Lytvynenko says, recalling the buzzing drone above her as it stalked her at speed. “I shouted, screamed and ran with my trauma bag, knowing that if I stopped I would die.”
The drone pursued her for ten minutes before retreating. A subsequent “safari hunting” attack struck two more vehicles en route to a hospital, leaving emergency responders and civilians in a deadly stalemate.
“This is a sustained feature of the war,” Dr Jarno Habicht, World Health Organisation representative, stated. WHO records 3,118 attacks on healthcare facilities—roughly two per day—since the Russian invasion began. 20% of those hits are on ambulances, a clear evidence of targeted strikes on lifesaving services.
Doctors Without Borders (MSF) reports that Russia systematically targets Ukrainian medical facilities, with double‑tap tactics aimed at first responders arriving after an initial strike. The drone’s live camera feeds ensure attacks are intentional rather than random.
“We no longer feel protected,” says MSF country coordinator Robin Meldrum, noting a shift of mobile clinic operations further from frontline zones: “Now we no longer go anywhere within 30 km of the front, and this distance is growing.”
With rising drone ranges and the absence of anti‑drone nets, ambulances are increasingly unable to reach patients. Lytvynenko and colleagues monitor social media for threats, yet she warns, “These drones can appear from anywhere.”
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has applied diplomatic pressure on Russia to cease these “hunting attacks” on civilians. Yet reports suggest that hospitals and ambulances continue to fall victim to Russian missiles and drones, breaking the protections guaranteed by the Geneva Conventions.
For further reading, see the MSF report detailing the sustained targeting of Ukrainian healthcare infrastructure.
