Ukraine

The Medical forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are the set of medical support command and control structures, military healthcare facilities, medical services and medical teams of the military units, education institutions with assets united with the mission to protect, maintain and strengthen the health of the military personnel. They are responsible for preventing disease occurrence and spread, providing medical care and treatment to military personnel from enlistment to retirement, and restoring combat capacity (medical rehabilitation) after wounds, injuries, and diseases.

The main tasks of the Medical forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine are:

• ensuring command and control structures, medical services of the military units, and military medical facilities maintain an appropriate level of combat readiness to perform the designated tasks;
  
  
• developing the medical support management system;
  
  
• organizing of protection and maintaining the health of military personnel and sanitation-epidemic welfare of the Armed Forces under any circumstances;
  
  
• providing preventive, acute, and rehabilitative healthcare to military personnel from enlistment to retirement, including disease prevention, health promotion, rapid evacuation, treatment of the sick, wounded, or injured, rehabilitation, and return to duty;
  
  
• building the capacities of the Medical forces to reduce military personnel losses while performing combat (special) tasks;
  
  
• assisting in manning the Armed Forces of Ukraine with personnel fit in terms of health for military service;
  
  
• providing troops (forces) with medicines, medical expendables, and equipment;
  
  
• delivering training, requalification, advanced training, and ongoing professional development of medical personnel;
  
  
• developing the military medical science and scientific research on medical support and healthcare issues;
  
  
• implementing medical information technologies (medical information systems, telemedicine, etc.);
  
  
• delivering tactical medical training for troops (forces), promoting hygiene and a healthy lifestyle;
  
  
• preventing infectious diseases outbreaks among military personnel;
  
  
• developing the healthcare, evacuation and rehabilitation facilities infrastructure.

To perform these tasks, the Medical forces, in the mid-term perspective, have to:

• carry out planning and management the Armed Forces of Ukraine medical support using the capabilities of medical information systems;
  
  
• maintain a readiness level that ensures the fulfillment of medical support tasks by the Armed Forces of Ukraine and other components of the Defense and Security Forces according to their relevant implementation scenarios;
  
  
• provide medical support to military units participating in NATO, the EU, the OSCE, and the UN peace support operations;
  
  
• organize and ensure effective treatment as well as preventive, sanitary-hygienic, and anti-epidemic measures aimed at preserving life and strengthening the health of military personnel;
  
  
• provide medical care (treatment and rehabilitation) to wounded, injured, traumatized, and diseased military personnel using advanced world medical technologies, practices, standards and medical aid protocols;
  
  
• ensure mobility (movement and maneuver) and endurance of the medical support units and assets on the battlefield and in case of CBRN contamination;
  
  
• provide medical services of the military units and military healthcare facilities with medicines, medical expendables and equipment, evacuation vehicles, and medical supply stocks;
  
  
• ensure training of a sufficient number of medical specialists according to military education standards, determined by specialties and specializations, as well as provide the manning of relevant positions by medical specialists;
  
  
• implement the military medical science results providing a scientific approach to the development of the medical support system; conduct applied military-relevant research on preserving and strengthening the health of military personnel and medical support of troops (forces) issues;
  
  
• cooperate effectively with the medical services of the other components of the Defense and Security Forces, the state health care system, and for a meaningful contribution to NATO operations ensuring interoperability with the medical services of the NATO member states armed forces;
  
  
• implement Euro-Atlantic standards for training and medical equipment technical compatibility, as well as jointly perform medical support tasks.

The primary objective of the Medical Forces development is to achieve the required capabilities to deliver effective medical support and to enable the deployed forces to carry out their duties according to the scenarios of their employment to deter armed threats, as well as during their participation in peace support operations and the case of emergencies.

Current situation

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion of Russia, the medical service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine has faced a number of challenges. Adequately reacting to them and increasing the medical capabilities, the Medical Forces, in close cooperation with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and other components of the Defense Forces, have taken the following actions:

• by re-subordinating health institutions of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and other components of the Defense Forces to the Medical Forces Command of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, a unified medical space was created. This step allowed increasing the overall number of beds available to the Defense Forces of Ukraine;
  
  
• forces and assets of the Emergency medical service of Ukraine were included in the evacuation process and first aid provision to injured personnel of the Defense Forces of Ukraine;
  
  
• civilian health institutions were repurposed for the first aid and treatment of wounded personnel that require long-term treatment and those that are going through rehabilitation and require prosthetics;
  
  
• military medics were appointed as coordinators to the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and Defense Forces medical facilities;
  
  
• in relevant medical facilities (military and civilian), the military-medical expert review committees were organized for the wounded (including sick) personnel;
  
  
• due to the mobilization capacity of the national economy, additional medical and evacuation units (military hospitals, independent medical ambulance companies, and temporary ambulance trains) were established;
  
  
• due to the means of the Medical Forces Command, which can provide medical assistance at Role 2 level and higher, a sufficient number of mobile medical reinforcement groups were created. Cardiovascular surgeons and other narrowly focused specialists additionally staffed these units. This action allowed to decrease in the number of initial amputations and to conduct of surgeries in case of critical bleeding from major arteries (neck, chest and abdomen, heart);
  
  
• to provide highly specialized medical treatment to wounded, traumatized, and sick personnel of the Defense Forces of Ukraine, capabilities of the National Medical Sciences Academy of Ukraine were incorporated;
  
  
• the triage system while operating the massive incoming of wounded and traumatized personnel was improved by separating evacuation streams of the wounded and diseased not by the level of required medical treatment but also through nosology (health facilities specializing in polytrauma, neurosurgery, burns, acubarotrauma, eye trauma, etc.);
  
  
• efficient evacuation of the wounded and diseased military personnel by railway and air transport means was organized.

(status: 19 December 2022)