Ukraine restarts medical evacuation flights, cutting trips to Poland to 2 hours

Ukraine is bringing back medical evacuation flights, even though its airspace remains closed. For the most seriously injured and ill patients, that could change a lot.

Until now, getting critical cases to Polish hospitals took more than ten hours. With air transport, the journey could shrink to as little as two hours. For someone in a life-threatening condition, those hours matter.

Since Russia's full-scale invasion on 24 February 2022, Ukrainian skies have been closed to civilian flights. Evacuations have gone by land instead, mostly by train and ambulance. Poland quickly became the main hub for treating badly wounded and sick Ukrainians, who were moved across the border and often flown on to hospitals elsewhere in Europe.

The new flights are meant for the heaviest cases, the patients who can least afford a long ride by road or rail. The aircraft are set to fly straight to Poland.