Berlin-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov had heard from longtime sources in Ukraine that hospitals in the western part of the country were overwhelmed with COVID-19 patients, even though the official nationwide numbers did not indicate a coronavirus emergency. He knew the health system in Ukraine was nearing collapse after six years of war with Russian-backed separatists, and a new president who inherited health reforms that had slashed government subsidies, leaving medics underpaid and without enough equipment.
Air travel was not an option, so Chernov drove 2,500 kilometers (1,500 miles) from Germany to Ukraine. Once he arrived, he continued reaching out to medical workers to find a way to show the dire conditions. Local journalists in Ukraine kept telling him it was impossible – the medics and the government would never allow it.
Eventually, Chernov gained the trust of several medics who allowed him and Maloletka to visit their hospitals and document the conditions. Doctors were making their own protective gear out of plastic bags. Many medics were sick. Others had stopped working because the conditions were dangerous and they were not making enough money: ICU doctors in Ukraine make $148 to $174 a month, while nurses get $111. At one hospital, a pathologist who wore a handmade protective suit was doing autopsies outside the hospital because of poor indoor air and water filtration in the morgue. Another hospital had no ventilators.
Chernov and Maloletka worked together to ensure they had the equipment and gear they needed to work safely inside the hospitals. The video and photos the produced were extremely powerful and personal. They showed the shortage of medical and protective gear for the workers – as well as the medics’ humanity and determination to treat desperately ill patients despite the lack of basic supplies.
A patient with coronavirus breathes with an oxygen mask in an intensive care unit at a regional hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, May 4, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A doctor uses a stethoscope to examine a patient with COVID-19 at a hospital in Malyn, Ukraine, April 28, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A nurse administers drugs to a patient with COVID-19 in an intensive care unit at a regional hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, May 4, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A doctor walks through a corridor in an intensive care unit at a regional hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, May 4, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
An elderly woman, a patient with COVID-19, breathes using an oxygen mask inside a hospital in Pochaiv, Ukraine, May 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Dr. Ivan Venzhynovych, wearing protective gear against the coronavirus, poses for a photo after morning examination of patients with COVID-19 at a hospital in Pochaiv, Ukraine, May 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
In the midst of the COVID-19 outbreak, medical specialists walk through a disinfectant corridor toward an intensive care unit at a regional hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, May 4, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Doctors in protective suits prepare a patient with COVID-19 for an x-ray of his lungs in an intensive care unit at a regional hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, May 4, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Dr. Kosyantyn Dronyk helps a patient with an oxygen mask in an intensive care unit at a regional hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, May 4, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A medical specialist checks a 5-year-old girl’s lung x-rays at a hospital in Chernivtsi, Ukraine, May 5, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A doctor uses a stethoscope to check a COVID-19 patient during a morning examination at a hospital in Pochaiv, Ukraine, May 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Medical workers wearing protective suits test samples for the coronavirus at a hospital in Ternopil, Ukraine, April 29, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
A medical specialist poses for photo next to an religious icon at a hospital in Pochaiv, Ukraine, May 1, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Pathologists at the morgue in Ternopil, Ukraine, transfer the body of a man who died of COVID-19, April 30, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Pathologists examine the body of a man who died of COVID-19, outside a hospital’s morgue in Ternopil, Ukraine, April 30, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Funeral workers lower the coffin of Semen Muchka, 71, who died of COVID-19, into the grave at a cemetery in Krynytsya, Ukraine, May 2, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Nadiya Muchka cries during the burial of their father, Semen Muchka, a 71-year-old who died from the COVID-19 in Krynytsya, Ukraine, May 2, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Andrii, left, and Nadiya Muchka, son and daughter of Semen Muchka, 71, who died of COVID-19, wear face masks during his funeral at a cemetery in Krynytsya, Ukraine, May 2, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
Pathologists remove protective suits outside of a hospital’s morgue after delivering bodies of people who died of COVID-19, in Ternopil, Ukraine, April 30, 2020.
AP Photo / Evgeniy Maloletka
To accompany the visuals, Chernov worked with Belarus-based reporter Yuras Karmanau, who frequently reports on Ukraine, and Moscow-based Volodya Isachenkov to write a compelling story that also put the struggling health system in context with the many problems facing Ukraine. The text/photo package also appeared as a gallery on the AP Images blog.
The play was impressive among customers, with some video clients like Deutsche Welle and EuroNews using more than a minute of the footage. The story also received strong reaction among Ukrainian media, as well as from nongovernmental organizations and others. One foundation even reached out to the pathologist who had set up an outdoor morgue, supplying the medic with protective gear, disinfectants and a tent to use outside.