The Ministry of Strategic Industries of Ukraine, together with the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine and the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, conducted demonstration tests of medical evacuation equipment on the occasion of World Emergency Medical Day. The event was attended by representatives of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, including the Medical Forces Command, military medics, representatives of embassies from various countries and journalists from foreign and Ukrainian media.

The goal was to draw attention to the issue of medical evacuation in the combat zone. In addition to encourage representatives of partner countries to sign direct contracts with Ukrainian manufacturers as part of the ZBROYARI: Manufacturing Freedom project.

"Such equipment is needed at the frontline, it saves the lives of both the wounded and military medics. Our manufacturers are able to make really high-quality products. They are different: armoured vehicles, ambulances, wheeled and tracked robotic platforms of various modifications. To get these products to the frontline, they need to be purchased. The state has very limited resources today. We, as the Ministry of Strategic Industries, are looking for ways to raise additional funds in the face of limited funding. That's why we showed these samples of equipment to representatives of our partner countries and told them how important it is for the military to have them in their arsenal. We want our allies to help us purchase these vehicles for the army," said Anna Gvozdiar, Deputy Minister of Strategic Industries.

Nine products from seven Ukrainian manufacturers took part in the demonstration tests. Two samples of automotive equipment and seven ground robotic platforms were presented.

"Transporting the wounded using modern robotic vehicles is extremely relevant and important. It reduces the time required to evacuate servicemen from the battlefield to a place of qualified medical care. This, in turn, prevents soldiers from being injured or killed.

The Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel-General Oleksandr Syrskyi, pays great attention to the issue of saving the lives of our soldiers, and it is a priority for commanders, officers and military authorities at all levels.

The Armed Forces, together with the Ministry of Strategic Industries, are identifying requirements and needs and looking for already implemented technological solutions to implement them in the Ukrainian army and further scale them up," said Colonel Andriy Lebedenko, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

"For the Medical Forces Command, as for any commander, saving the lives of our servicemen is a key priority. The realities of modern warfare require us to develop new progressive, technological solutions for medical evacuation. The enemy is using modern deadly weapons against us. The front line is heterogeneous. There are areas with lots of sand, water and forest. Sometimes the defence is carried out in difficult urban conditions. That is why the methods of medical evacuation of the wounded used in previous wars (World War II, Soviet-Afghan War, Chechen Wars) are not effective enough in our realities. Today, robotic systems are the solution that can save the life of a wounded person, reduce evacuation time and maintain the combat capability of a unit under any conditions," said Lieutenant Colonel of the Medical Service Ihor Shcherbakov.

According to him, under current conditions, evacuations are carried out at night - it is safer. But this increases the evacuation time, which negatively affects the health of the soldier.

"Every hour of delay in medical evacuation can cost the lives of wounded defenders. It is imperative that we introduce technologies that will allow us to quickly evacuate the wounded from the battlefield, preserving the lives and health of the military personnel who carry out this evacuation. Unfortunately, combat medics and medical personnel are a priority target for the enemy in this war. Robotic systems cannot be procured from the state budget, so we need the support of our partners. In addition, we need help in improving these systems for their better use and saving lives," adds Valentyna Obolentseva, Head of the Medical Supply Policy Division of the Defence Ministry's Healthcare Department.

This is confirmed by Alina Mikhailova, head of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion's medical service. As she mentioned, according to the protocols, the wounded should be evacuated from the battlefield within an hour. But in the current situation, evacuation can take several hours or even days. Alina Mikhailova gives several examples from her team's experience.

"Near Bakhmut, we were on our way to assault. At one of our positions, we had a seriously wounded man who needed urgent evacuation. We sent out an evacuation team of four soldiers. Five minutes after the evacuation started, the Russians shot at the evacuation team, and instead of one wounded, we got five. And the evacuation, which was supposed to last 30-40 minutes, lasted about 2.5 hours - we evacuated five soldiers.

In the Kupyansk direction, at night, the group went to evacuate the wounded in an ordinary pickup truck (because the battalion did not have armoured evacuation vehicles) - without headlights, without any identification marks. This vehicle was hit by an FPV drone. As a result, a soldier was killed and the crew was wounded."

According to her, these losses could have been avoided with armoured vehicles or robotic systems.

"Conditions at the front are changing almost every day. The development of unmanned technologies over the past two years has forced us to change our approaches to frontline evacuation. The approaches that worked in the first 8-9 years of the Russian-Ukrainian War are now ineffective. Every frontline evacuation now carries a huge risk of losing both the wounded and the entire evacuation team. For Ukraine, everyone's life is of the highest value, so the introduction of unmanned ground vehicles for evacuation from the battlefield allows us to save the wounded and preserve evacuation teams. We need a rapid and widespread introduction of the latest technologies for evacuation. This requires systematic support from our partners, while we can share our valuable experience with them, which they critically lack," said Oleksandr Danyliuk, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Defence's Healthcare Department, Captain of the Medical Service.

"In the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian War, combat actions often take place within the boundaries of settlements. In this case, medical evacuation concerns not only the military but also civilians. That is why we are appealing to our partners - first of all, those who cannot finance the purchase of weapons, such as international humanitarian organisations. We also call on them to help the Ukrainian army by other means - those that can save lives and health," said Anna Gvozdiar.

The Ministry of Strategic Industries is focused on developing systems that can functionally replace humans at the frontline, especially in high-risk situations such as medical evacuation. The main problem in this is insufficient funding. Therefore, we are working to raise funds from partner countries, including through the ZBROYARI: Manufacturing Freedom project, within the framework of which the event was held.

We would like to remind you that this is a global fundraising campaign, a strategic collection among partner countries. Its goal is to raise $10 billion for the production of Ukrainian weapons in 2024.