“When you enter the hospital's territory, you can see a drone flying over it and monitoring what is happening here,” she said. “It can explode at any moment; it’s a massive threat to the lives of both patients and medical staff.”

Since then, most of the hospital’s windows have been sealed with sandbags to protect the children inside the facility, where operations continue despite the menace.

For Dr. Kholodniak, the Russians' logic is straightforward: terror, pure and simple. “To keep the population in fear,” she adds.

By her desk, a bulletproof vest and helmet rest beside shrapnel fragments—a grim juxtaposition in a children’s hospital. Yet, this is the new normal.

Dr. Kholodniak considers it her duty to stay “where it's tough, where there's pain, where it’s needed. That's just the nature of the profession,” she said with a tired smile.

————

Slava’s name was changed as he desired to stay anonymous for safety reasons.

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