Ukraine Hospital Resists Russian Takeover By Faking COVID-19 Outbreak

• Kherson has witnessed stories of resistance from Ukraine since Russia’s fall.
• A hospital staff member described the extent to which they went to prevent a Russian takeover.
• The Wall Street Journal was told by the leading physician that “our hospital could not become a Russian one.”

Staff at a hospital in Kherson, Ukraine, went to great lengths to prevent a Russian takeover during the eight months the city was occupied — including faking a COVID-19 outbreak to stave off troops. 

Kherson, a port city in the south, was the first major Ukrainian town to be seized by Russian forces following the February invasion. The regional capital was held for eight months until Russian officials announced a retreat on November 9, delivering a humiliating blow to President Vladimir Putin’s war effort.

The Wall Street Journal interviewed a doctor from the Tropinka Hospital in the city about the difficulties he and his fellows went through to stop the Russians gaining control of the hospital.

“Our hospital couldn’t become a Russian institution,” Dr. Leonid Remiga, Chief Physician, told the Journal. “All the employees felt this way…I couldn’t leave them.”

After the Russian troops invaded the city, soldiers arrived at the hospital to convert it into a military hospital. Remiga explained to them that the hospital was dealing a COVID-19 crisis. Remiga wore full protective gear including a bodysuit and foot covers. Staff had also posted warning signs on hospital walls regarding COVID-19.

Believering there was an active epidemic, the troops fled and the hospital remained under Ukrainian control.

Remiga also claimed that Russian soldiers had ordered him to remove a Ukrainian flag from the hospital. He refused. He claimed that he told soldiers he could shoot him, but he wouldn’t be removing the flag.

Remiga’s detailed account of the way he and other hospital staff resisted a Russian takeover of the hospital adds to the stories of Ukrainian resistance that have poured out of Kherson since the retreat earlier this month.

Liberated Kherson still struggles with the effects of war. Ukraine has offered to assist citizens in evacuating the city before the winter, due to the destruction and damage to its power infrastructure. Russia has been also attacking Kherson from afar. The latest shelling killed at least 10 civilians, and injured dozens more.