Ukrainian Volunteers Turn Old SUVs Into Lifesaving Vehicles

The need to move wounded soldiers from remote front lines to safety with limited resources has forced Ukrainian volunteers to innovate a way to turn used SUVs into casualty evacuation vehicles. Lesia Bakalets visited a workshop in Kyiv where old cars are repurposed. VOA footage by Evgenii Shynkar.

At this Workshop in Kip used SUVs get a second life and a new life saving purpose our goal is to buy relatively cheap cars and remodel them as much as possible so that it’s convenient for Medics to evacuate wounded soldiers Alexander Boris joined the Tactical medicine nurse volunteer medical unit at

The beginning of the war besides being a medical instructor has launched a project to make casualty evacuation vehicles or casual bags in general a kivac is anything that delivers a wounded soldier from the combat zone to the evacuation point it can be a bicycle an ordinary stretcher a

Helicopter anything in our case it’s remodeled SUVs this training video gives a general idea of how an evacuation with kivak Works actual bfield conditions are much tougher of course volunteers say they try to camouflage a car so it’s inconspicuous the cars body shell is also changed for an armored

One we disassemble the car fully remove the interior seats and paneling and remove the windows then we make the floor sew up the windows and add the right chairs vent trays hanging organizers after remodeling the interior looks more like an ambulance here we have a place for a

Lying patient and a place for a doctor we also arrange light masking in all of our kacs we make them red blue or green this light is not so demasking as a white one when you need to open the door at night volunteers buy the used SUVs in

Europe the purchase price and remodeling are financed through donations depending on a car’s condition the transformation process could take from several days to several weeks we’re overloaded now our entire garage is full of cars for remodeling I’ve joined the team recently but already have worked on eight cars volunteers say Cas bags are

Essential on the front lines and the need of them is endless lalet we news