WHO establishes modular ambulance stations to strengthen emergency medical response in Ukraine

In 2025, the WHO Country Office in Ukraine, in partnership with the Ministry of Health of Ukraine and with funding from the King Salman Humanitarian Aid and Relief Centre (KSRelief), established 5 modular stations for emergency medical teams in the Kherson, Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

The stations were installed in communities experiencing disruption to health services due to the ongoing war.

"These modular stations have significantly improved our working conditions. We now have a warm and safe place to complete documentation, rest between calls and prepare for future work without having to sit in the cold or operate in unsafe conditions," says Andrii, a paramedic with an emergency medical team in the Dnipropetrovsk region.

The modular stations were designed to support access to emergency medical care, particularly in areas where existing health infrastructure has been damaged or is no longer fully operational. Serving as operational hubs for ambulance teams, the stations enable faster and more reliable access to emergency services for residents of remote and hard-to-reach villages, and are often the only source of urgent medical care available.

Each station is fully equipped, autonomous and designed to keep emergency medical teams safe, allowing them to remain operational even during harsh weather conditions and power outages.

The initiative forms part of the Country Office's broader emergency response and recovery efforts in Ukraine, which focus on restoring access to essential health services, while strengthening the resilience of the health-care system.

"Access to emergency medical care is critical everywhere, particularly in frontline regions. We remain committed to ensuring uninterrupted access to essential health services across the country so that all patients can receive timely, life-saving assistance wherever they are. Strengthening emergency medical response at the community level is a key part of this effort and a vital step towards protecting lives and reinforcing health system resilience," said Dr Jarno Habicht, WHO Representative in Ukraine.

This initiative is part of the Country Office's ongoing support to Ukraine's health system. Overall, since the start of the full-scale invasion by the Russian Federation, with the support of partners, WHO has enabled the installation of 57 modular clinics nationwide under its emergency response and recovery programme, providing access to health care for more than 302 000 people.