Ukrainian trauma surgeon operates on soldiers all day long amid Russia’s war

By ILLIA NOVIKOV and VASILISA STEPANENKO
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The lead trauma surgeon at a military hospital in Ukraine’s capital has his hands deep in a war churning hundreds of miles away. The 59-year-old doctor’s work to repair the bodies of some of the most badly injured soldiers is all-consuming. “I only operate,” Petro Nikitin says. “I do nothing else in my life now. I don’t see my children, who have been evacuated, I don’t see my wife, who has been evacuated, I live by myself, and all I do is treat the wounded.” While the Ukrainian military does not provide casualty figures, some Western sources estimate more than 100,000 Ukrainian troops have been killed and wounded since Russia invaded the country.