The AP team of Germany-based video journalist Mstyslav Chernov and Russia-based photographer Dmitri Lovetsky secured exclusive international agency access to a hospital battling coronavirus and casualties in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict zone.
A medical worker collects a sample for COVID-19 testing from a man inside a bomb shelter in Stepanakert, capital of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 20, 2020. As Nagorno-Karabakh’s medical system faced a massive challenge, volunteers joined the fight against the virus, delivering medicines to the people hiding in basements and helping track down those infected.
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Coronavirus patients lie in a Stepanakert infectious diseases clinic, in the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 20, 2020.
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Medical workers transport a wounded man in a Stepanakert hospital during shelling by Azerbaijan’s artillery in Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 28, 2020. Nagorno-Karabakh officials said Azerbaijani forces hit Stepanakert, the region's capital, and the nearby town of Shushi with long-range multiple rocket systems, killing one civilian and wounding two more.
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Doctors perform surgery in a basement of a Stepanakert hospital during shelling by Azerbaijan’s artillery in Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 28, 2020.
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A medical worker collects a sample for COVID-19 testing inside a bomb shelter in Stepanakert, capital of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 20, 2020.
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Doctor Aram Gregorian gives medicine to a woman near her apartment building amid military conflict in Stepanakert, in the disputed separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 16, 2020.
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Local residents look over the rubble of a home destroyed by Azerbaijani artillery, in Stepanakert, capital of the separatist region of Nagorno-Karabakh, Oct. 17, 2020.
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Chernov and Lovetsky had been on the front line in the disputed region for more than a week when they began to see increasing numbers of people becoming sick with the coronavirus. They found a network of volunteer doctors risking their own health to offer care to people seeking refuge in bomb shelters. Repeated requests to return with the doctors to their hospitals and clinics were rebuffed until Chernov tracked down the region’s health minister to personally request access. Chernov said: “After some time (the minister) told me he was diagnosed with COVID-19 a week ago and agreed to give permission to visit hospital and follow the nurse performing tests.”
Wearing full protective gear carried with them from previous reporting in the Ukraine, the pair visited the main hospital in Stepanakert and found terrible scenes of suffering as coronavirus patients mixed with the war-wounded – while doctors and nurses continued to treat people despite suffering from the virus themselves.
Their on-the-ground reporting was crafted into a powerful text story by Vladimir Isachenkov in Moscow and the story moved as cross-format agency exclusive the next day.