Russian military hospitals unable to cope with number of soldiers wounded in war against Ukraine
Military hospitals in Russia are no longer able to cope with the flood of soldiers wounded in the war against Ukraine, prompting authorities to begin converting civilian hospitals, maternity wards and individual medical departments on a mass scale to treat military personnel.
Source: Russian news outlet Novaya Gazeta Europe
Details: Novaya Gazeta Europe has reported that since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russian military hospitals have been unable to deal with the influx of wounded servicemen. As a result, Russian authorities began building new hospitals, transferring civilian medical facility buildings to the Ministry of Defence, and opening special military wards in ordinary hospitals.
One example cited by the outlet is the Siberian city of Omsk. At the end of 2025, the local authorities there closed a women's health clinic and allocated nearly RUB 2 million (around US$28,200) for renovation so that the premises could be transferred to the Ministry of Defence for use as a polyclinic for veterans of the war against Ukraine.
Earlier, a maternity hospital in the city had also been closed. Staff were informed of the possible closure as early as 2022, and the legal entity was subsequently liquidated. The regional authorities later attributed this to demographic problems and a decline in the number of births. Former staff members, however, said around 2,500 births took place there every year.
In 2024, RUB 400 million (US$5.6 million) of federal budget funds was spent on reconstructing and equipping the building. Another RUB 500 million (US$7 million) was allocated from the Omsk Oblast budget. Later, by order of Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin, a further RUB 385 million (US$5.4 million) was allocated to buy 513 pieces of medical equipment for the hospital.
Local activist Daniil Chebykin told the journalists that Omsk is effectively being turned into a "capital of military medicine", as the city is a long way from the border and Ukrainian drones and missiles cannot reach it. He also suggested that officials have a financial interest in building new hospitals due to the large amounts of budget funds being allocated to these projects. During the renovation of the Perm garrison military hospital, for example, RUB 35 million (US$492,800) was allegedly stolen according to investigators.
According to the outlet, the situation is similar in other regions of Russia. In Moscow, the only hospital for people with cystic fibrosis was repurposed as a hospital for war veterans in 2023, and a maternity hospital in Rostov-on-Don met the same fate in 2024.
Novaya Gazeta Europe also says that due to a shortage of beds in military hospitals, many wounded servicemen are being treated in ordinary civilian hospitals alongside civilian patients. Sources told the outlet that in St Petersburg, there are wounded military personnel "in almost every major hospital".
A former nurse at the Dzhanelidze Research Institute of Emergency Medicine in St Petersburg said the number of wounded is so great that military hospitals are overwhelmed.
"They don't talk much about the 'special military operation' personnel because there are so many of them, and nobody wants to publicise the fact that there are so many of them that the military hospitals don't have enough room for them," the former nurse stated. ["Special military operation" is the Russian propaganda term for the war in Ukraine – ed.]
She also said that military patients have effectively "used up almost all the antibiotics and supplies" needed to treat civilians. Some of the wounded soldiers were later moved to a military hospital in Severomorsk in Murmansk Oblast.
"When they were transferred, the ward breathed a sigh of relief, because their behaviour was terrible. It's understandable, it's PTSD, but it went beyond all limits: they were buying alcohol, deliveries were constantly arriving, the bins were full of bottles, and they ignored the doctors and nurses."
At the same time, the journalists note that Russia is facing a growing shortage of medical workers. In February 2025, Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko stated that the country is short of 23,300 doctors and 63,600 mid-level medical staff.
The outlet also quotes a message from an Omsk resident who complained that her seriously ill mother was unable to be admitted to hospital due to a lack of beds. The woman said she had been told by the hospital that this was due to the large number of military patients.
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