SPECIAL PROJECT
07 April 2026
"Do I know MOAS? Of course! They're absolutely brilliant," a combat medic told a journalist from Ukrainska Pravda, having recently returned from Sloviansk. "They're highly professional medics, the best medical evacuation service you could possibly imagine. To be honest, when I'm around them, it sometimes feels like our crew is just a taxi service."
Such praise naturally makes one want to meet the founder of the charity MOAS-Ukraine, Christopher Catrambone, an Italian-American entrepreneur who launched a humanitarian mission to rescue migrants at sea in 2013. The acronym MOAS stands for Migrant Offshore Aid Station. Through search-and-rescue operations in the Mediterranean Sea, the organisation has saved around 40,000 lives over several years. It has since expanded its work to other areas in crisis and shifted part of its focus to training new teams.
Christopher Catrambone
In March 2022, after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Catrambone decided it was time to shift efforts towards aiding wounded soldiers and civilians caught up in the fighting. Since then, MOAS has focused entirely on operations along the front line in Ukraine, working side by side with Ukraine's Medical Forces, state emergency services and its people.
To date, 50 teams of highly qualified doctors, paramedics and drivers have been assembled, each able to respond at short notice across 14 locations hardest hit by Russian aggression. In addition to evacuating and transporting those who sustained injuries, MOAS runs tactical medicine training and operates mobile medical units in areas where healthcare facilities have been destroyed by Russian strikes or are inaccessible. Read on to find out more in this special project by Ukrainska Pravda and the MOAS-Ukraine Charitable Foundation.
MOAS came to Ukraine to rescue children from the war
Drawing on nearly a decade of experience in crisis situations, MOAS Director Christopher Catrambone identified Ukraine as a place where the organisation’s expertise could be put to use. But in early 2022, the scale of what was to come was not yet fully apparent. At first, MOAS intended to evacuate children from areas under fire to safer regions.
Christopher Catrambone and an evacuation team
"I arrived here about a month before the full-scale invasion, and in my heart, I knew something was going to happen," Catrambone said. "I guess one of the disadvantages of the big NGOs is that they always arrive after something happens and it takes them a long time to prepare a response. I knew that if we were going to be successful here, then we needed to come before, and maybe nothing would happen and good. But if something did happen, we would be prepared.The day it happened, we were ready. We had a full base. We had all of our people ready. From the very beginning, we started using ambulances to evacuate vulnerable children. We basically had a hotline that people could call. People were calling us to evacuate kids that were sick, paraplegic or handicapped. We began transporting them. That was our first job at the beginning, I would say, for the first two weeks."
The start of the full-scale invasion echoed what Catrambone had seen before: mass casualties, lack of access to medical care, chaos and despair. Yet one factor sets it apart from other humanitarian crises – this is a war in which resistance persists through both professional soldiers and volunteers. Witnessing the suffering of wounded Ukrainian defenders pushed Catrambone to rapidly expand and scale up operations across Ukraine.
"It was just a day that I was there at a frontline stabilisation centre and a van pulled up," he said. "There were so many bodies, maybe 10 bodies of soldiers, and literally when they opened the door, they fell out. It was shocking. I have seen things in my career like this, but for me it was devastating, heartbreaking. It brought me to tears. I came up to the driver of this van, and I asked him: 'Can you please tell me why these guys are all dead?' He said they are dead because there was no doctor to care for them."
It was this very incident that marked a turning point, showing that the scale of the tragedy demanded far greater efforts and a response guided by wartime needs, rather than mere proactivity. The most pressing challenge was limited access to timely medical care, compounded by shortages of medical staff, ambulances and equipment. MOAS moved quickly to secure donors, partners and specialists to build evacuation teams capable of delivering rapid, high-quality assistance.
Evacuation
However, saving civilians also remained a priority. The organisation subsequently rolled out a network of mobile medical units to support the civilian population in remote areas where medical infrastructure had been destroyed or was inaccessible, particularly in liberated territories. Meanwhile, MOAS began training Ukrainian military and civilian personnel in tactical medicine to spread life-saving skills and ensure the long-term resilience of society.
An ICU on wheels
Across four years of full-scale war, MOAS medical teams have carried out more than 83,000 evacuations of wounded soldiers and provided medical treatment in another 38,000 cases. The teams frequently handle the most complex cases: "yellow" and "red" patients – those requiring urgent or critical care – who are not always transportable. In many situations, MOAS is the only organisation that can take on such cases, thanks to the expertise of its medics and the technical capabilities available. Each crew includes an anaesthetist with critical care experience, which sets MOAS apart from most ambulance services, where paramedics typically make up the teams, and meets the "gold standard of medical evacuation".
"We carefully select personnel according to high requirements for the level of qualification, which allowed us to create an ideal formation with proven efficiency," Catrambone said. "MOAS is the largest employer of anesthesiologists in the country. In addition, the organisation takes care of the professional development and improvement of the qualifications of employees, ensuring their training through TССС trainings, professional training courses, participation in scientific conferences, etc."
On the logistical side, MOAS operates a fleet of 51 modern vehicles, including service vehicles and mobile intensive care units, all fully equipped to safeguard health and save lives.
The vehicle fleet
Each MOAS ambulance is equipped in line with all required medical and technical standards for providing resuscitation care in critical conditions.
All vehicles carry a full set of essential equipment from leading global manufacturers in their medical compartment, including Dräger Oxylog (2000, 2000+, 3000, 3000+) and Vingmed ViCare ventilators, Philips, Corpuls, Zoll X Series and Vingmed ViCare patient monitors, B. Braun Space, Alaris TIVA and Injectomat Agilia infusion pumps, LSU suction units, biphasic defibrillators and more. Effectively, each vehicle operates as a mobile intensive care unit, enabling crews to monitor a patient's condition, provide pain relief, support respiration and deliver high-quality medical care during transport.
An intensive care ambulance
Combined, these elements deliver impressive results: the survival rate during evacuation by MOAS intensive care ambulances exceeds 95%, meeting the highest NATO standards. The wounded are safely transported over both short and long distances.
"Out of those 84,000 soldiers that we've evacuated, we never lost one in our ambulance, not one. This is like a miracle, really, but this is professionalism. This is the goal that we can't lose," Catrambone emphasises.
From an unheard-of organisation to official inclusion in Ukraine's healthcare system
Today, the team consists of Ukrainian specialists, but that was not always the case. At first, the organisation was made up entirely of doctors and paramedics from EU countries, the UK and the US. Specialists from around the world arrived at a small hotel in Mukachevo, a city in Ukraine's west, where they underwent training before heading out to assist Ukrainian units already familiar with MOAS. The cooperation was not straightforward: language barriers, differences in treatment protocols and varying approaches to work in combat conditions all created additional challenges. In the early months, Ukrainian specialists were also cautious about the organisation, as they did not understand what it actually did.
"I only was able to recruit about 20% Ukrainians," Catrambone said. "All drivers were Ukrainian, but the paramedics and doctors… I couldn't get Ukrainians. They didn't know who really MOAS was: 'Oh, who is MOAS?' They go and Google MOAS. They're like, 'Oh, they're in that boat saving refugees in the Mediterranean or something.' And they're like, 'Well, I don't know these guys.'
At the very beginning, people were freaked out, Ukrainians included. They didn't want to be anywhere near the war. They didn't know what was going to happen. After the first six to eight months, we started slowly ramping up our Ukrainian staff and removing our foreign staff. Ukrainian medics began joining our team, and we focused on their further training. We organised special training in tactical medicine, as well as training in evacuation protocols. This allowed us to form professional Ukrainian teams that today work effectively and autonomously."
At the very beginning, people were freaked out, Ukrainians included. They didn't want to be anywhere near the war. They didn't know what was going to happen. After the first six to eight months, we started slowly ramping up our Ukrainian staff and removing our foreign staff. Ukrainian medics began joining our team, and we focused on their further training. We organised special training in tactical medicine, as well as training in evacuation protocols. This allowed us to form professional Ukrainian teams that today work effectively and autonomously."
Four years into the war, MOAS is not only recognised across the field of combat medicine; its specialists are formally integrated into Ukraine's healthcare system. They form a separate unit within the Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Centre for Emergency Medical Care and Disaster Medicine and take part in targeted patient evacuations. The organisation works under formal agreements with Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, the Security Service of Ukraine and individual military units.
The organisation collaborates with Ukraine's Ministry of Defence, the Security Service of Ukraine and individual military units under official agreements
The difficulty of MOAS teams' work is not defined solely by the severity of patients' injuries. At times, they are tasked with evacuating lightly wounded soldiers who could, in other circumstances, be transported to a medical unit by a standard taxi. These are referred to as "green" patients, whose condition does not raise concern and does not require the full range of equipment carried by MOAS crews. The challenge lies not in the injuries themselves, but in the environment: intense Russian attacks that other medical evacuation teams tend to steer clear of. MOAS steps in to take on this responsibility, Catrambone says, because someone must do the work, however dangerous it may be.
MOAS will continue its work in Ukraine until all soldiers are reunited with their families
MOAS medical teams have been operating successfully for four years in a row. Catrambone says he has been working alongside them throughout this time, without taking any leave, and plans to continue until Russia's war against Ukraine comes to an end.
A man rescued by MOAS thanking Catrambone
"I'm not always there on the front line. I'm not a medic. I'm not a doctor," he noted. "Every job that I've ever done, not only in my personal career but in my humanitarian career for the past 12 years, has been fighting for life and fighting for the survival of life.
All I do is go to the front line, jump in the cars, in our ambulances, sit there and look at the casualties that are in our ambulances. I look back, and I see these young faces on the stretcher and the bed, and I turn around, and it brings tears to my eyes because you can see the youth that has been taken from them. Their bodies, torn apart by FPV drones or shelling, and you understand that their lives are never going to be the same. People ask me: 'What do you do in the ambulance when you're there?' I pray for them. I have nothing else to do except pray for them and pray for their recovery and pray that we're able to keep them alive."
All I do is go to the front line, jump in the cars, in our ambulances, sit there and look at the casualties that are in our ambulances. I look back, and I see these young faces on the stretcher and the bed, and I turn around, and it brings tears to my eyes because you can see the youth that has been taken from them. Their bodies, torn apart by FPV drones or shelling, and you understand that their lives are never going to be the same. People ask me: 'What do you do in the ambulance when you're there?' I pray for them. I have nothing else to do except pray for them and pray for their recovery and pray that we're able to keep them alive."
It is in moments like these that he finds the motivation to carry on: securing funding and persuading donors to contribute. The humanitarian effort has been supported mainly by international donors, although their focus has moved elsewhere. Support has fallen sharply, as no one anticipated the war would continue for so long. Financial challenges arise periodically, and the organisation must overcome them by seeking new partners and additional sources of support.
"Currently, the MOAS team has a number of critical needs, without which it is impossible to maintain stability and efficiency of work," emphasises Catrambone.
Fuel is the primary need: vast quantities are consumed each month as the ambulances travel hundreds of kilometres daily on damaged roads. The fleet is running at full capacity, with individual vehicles now clocking up between 300,000 and 600,000 km – and in some cases up to 800,000 km – which requires constant maintenance and regular equipment upgrades.
An intensive care ambulance
Equally important are safety and communications equipment: early drone detection systems, electronic warfare capabilities and other tools that protect crews and patients in frontline areas. The need for medical equipment and consumables is no less urgent: devices, medicines, dressings and oxygen systems all require constant replenishment.
No matter how hard it gets, MOAS will keep going with its challenging mission to ensure that soldiers return to their families – to their wives, mothers and children.
Catrambone concludes: "I want to see soldiers reunite with their families. That was and remains my primary motivation here. This would be a sort of universal goal… Let's keep our families together. Let's keep the country. Let's give the country a chance to rebuild after the war by having families together. Recently I was walking in a park and I saw a soldier – he had his arm and one leg amputated. He was walking, his wife was there, and his little girl was following him. I just started crying, trying to hide it so he couldn't see me. But for me it was so emotional, because this is why I'm working."
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The use of site materials is allowed only with a reference (for online publications — a hyperlink) to "Ukrainska Pravda" no lower than the third paragraph.
Any copying, publication, reprinting, or further distribution of information containing a reference to " Interfax-Ukraine" is strictly prohibited.
Materials marked as PROMOTED are advertisements and are published as advertising. The editorial board may not share the views promoted in them.
Materials marked as SPECIAL PROJECT and WITH SUPPORT are also advertisements, but the editorial team participates in preparing this content and shares the views expressed in these materials.
The editorial board is not responsible for the facts and value judgments published in advertising materials. According to Ukrainian law, the advertiser is responsible for the content of the advertisements.
Project founder: Georgiy Gongadze, Editor-in-chief: Sevgil Musaeva, Founding editor: Olena Prytula, Editorial e-mail: [email protected]
Registered online media entity; media identifier — R40-02280.
Address: 01032, Kyiv, Zhylianska St., 48, 50A. Phone: +380 95 641 22 07