Aid for civilian and military victims of war
People with severe injuries are treated at the rehabilitation centre “Unbroken” in Lviv, which also receives support from Germany.
Manuel Fritsch ,
05.06.2024 
“It’s heartbreaking to see a five-year-old who’s lost a leg. It suddenly brings this terrible war up close.” This was what the Mayor of Freiburg Martin Horn said after travelling to Ukraine with Svenja Schulze, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, in May 2024. In Lviv in the west of the country, the two visited the opening of a prosthesis workshop – the latest unit to be added to one of Ukraine’s most state-of-the-art hospitals.
Multiple injuries and their psychological consequences
Work on a new hospital complex in Lviv began immediately after the start of the war in February 2022. Within a few months, “Unbroken” was established – a rehabilitation centre for victims of the fighting. Initially it was mainly injured civilians who came to the hospital, but the facility now mostly treats soldiers. The war invalids who undergo rehab here usually have multiple injuries: brain damage, burns, loss of sight, missing limbs. Then there are the psychological consequences of what they’ve been through.
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Open consent formAt the opening of Unbroken in spring 2023 it was announced that the centre would seek to treat the injured based on a holistic approach and reintegrate them into society. For most of the war invalids you meet on the wards at Unbroken, there’s another priority for the time being: winning the war. Many say they want to return to the front after their treatment so as to make their contribution to fending off the attack on their country.
Cooperation with international doctors and therapists
One floor in the large “Unbroken” complex is dedicated to Freiburg – Lviv’s German twin city. The city in the Black Forest organised aid deliveries right at the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. The city in Baden-Württemberg contributed funds amounting to some half a million euros to the emergency centre in Lviv, while a further sum of 12 million euros came from the German Federal Government for “Unbroken” alone. Collaborations have also been established with international medical specialists, therapists and orthopaedic technicians.
