Russian artillery fires shells aimed at the south of Grozny on 24 January as Russian forces continued their military offensive against rebel positions arond the capital of the breakaway Chechen republic. Photo: AFP / Vladimir Mashatin
A New Zealand medic back from the front line in Ukraine is warning doctors and nurses here not to join the war effort unless they are trained to work in conflict zones.
Huge numbers of foreign fighters have joined the battle since Russia invaded six months ago, but those on the ground say it is drawing people in for selfies and adrenaline, not the realities of war.
"If you talked your way into getting to the front line, the danger is are you are going to be killing people instead of saving them?" - NZ medic back from Ukraine
With experience in multiple conflict zones, it was easy for the New Zealand-based medic to get a volunteer position in a trauma unit in the southeast of Ukraine.
The woman, who RNZ is not naming for safety, was based about 30 kilometres from the front line and still within reach of Russian artillery and the sound of bombs.
The old hospital had the basics, equipped with old Soviet-era technology and enough supplies to keep people alive until they are stable enough to be moved.
"Maybe over 95 percent of the injuries I saw were all bomb blast, shrapnel injuries with the occasional, maybe three or four gunshot wounds and the rest of it was just major trauma caused by injuries you get from artillery shelling and shrapnel."
She said she knew what she was doing.
"Everyone on my team like foreigners wise had had some experience working in other war zones, we had people who had worked in Mosul or in Iraq or had worked in other remote austere environments, and high-risk areas with minimal pieces of equipment."
This was something she was trained for having deployed throughout her military career, but it was not always that easy.
She had come across people in Ukraine vying for a spot on the front line who had lied on their CV or had only just finished university.
"There were a few foreigners who came to our facility and one of them sold himself as a combat medic setting up a GoFundMe and he was going around going out to the front line setting himself in as the combat medic for front line units and it's just like how you can do that if you have no qualifications?"
She said combat medicine was its own speciality - and doctors and nurses from Aotearoa would struggle without additional training.
She warned that people who went in without experience or qualifications created more danger.
"If you talked your way into getting to the front line, the danger is are you are going to be killing people instead of saving them?
"You're not going to be helping the country, you're just going to be another danger."
It was admirable people wanted to go, but often the lure of social media fame or validation took people away from actually helping, she said.
"They do it for the followers. How do you do that is by putting yourself into situations like this, trying to show the world that you care and you're trying to make a difference [but] really all you're doing is being another danger in a war zone."
Former New Zealand soldier Simon Carkeek has almost 15 years of experience in the defence force and combat zones.
He is now the owner of PracMed NZ, a supplies and training company combining first aid and conflict medicine.
He said through his contacts in Ukraine he was constantly hearing about the number of unqualified people in the war-torn country.
"It seems to be a bit of a phenomenon with this conflict in particular. There seems to be the term used, 'Battlefield Tourism'.
"There's people there with TikTok channels and YouTube and various forms of social media going through showing off these different bits and pieces, like 'hey look mum I'm in Ukraine' sort of thing and they quite clearly have no idea of what they are actually doing there."
He said there were some New Zealanders included who were getting roles outside their qualifications.
"It's great for people to be altruistic and go out and help people ... but they need to understand this is not a place just to go through and just go there just because they want to have a look.
"The worst-case scenario is that you get people killed because of your arrogance and incompetence.
"You've got to remember it's not like you can pause, it's not like someone can be like 'oh time out, please stop shooting and dropping bombs on us'.
"You're going to have to go through and potentially still be engaged in combat while trying to look after someone who is very ill."
Both Carkeek and the local medic said there were plenty of ways to help Ukraine but getting in out of your depth or in the way of others was not the answer.