Pictures show an award-winning humanitarian's work in Ukraine - including helping wounded kids and training medics inside bunkers.

By Elizabeth Hunter.

Professor Mark Hannaford co-founded Medics4Ukraine in 2022 alongside paramedic Luca Alfatti.

He has now released images of his work there - training medics and providing aid.

Mark, of Beer, Devon, and his team delivers medical aid, as well as providing training in medical trauma to front-line soldiers and medical professionals.

Pictures taken throughout Mark's time in Ukraine show him visiting wounded soldiers in hospitals, training medics inside underground bunkers to avoid attack, and teaching CPR to those on the frontlines.

Others show members of the organisation assisting wounded children, handing out medical supplies, and travelling cities in ambulances while wearing bulletproof vests.

Mark has now been awarded a medal by the head of military commission in Lviv for his efforts to support and train local medical professionals in the country.

Medics4Ukraine has so far provided over £3m of medical aid, and trained over 800 medical professionals.

"It was a visceral reaction, really, to the unfairness," Mark said, describing the motivation to create the organisation.

"We've been used to peace in Europe and development and prosperity for so long.

"To have an aggressive invasion like this, which really changes the whole face of Europe, just seemed to be completely unreasonable and unfair - the amount of death, and the millions of refugees they're creating.

"We deliver trauma supplies to hospitals, units, and to clinics, but we also train large groups of people in Ukraine.

"Then we take suppliers with us for that training so that the students walk away with trauma suppliers and first aid kits and stuff like that.

"We originally thought we'd be going for six months, and our aim was to raise £100,000 - but two and a half years later, we're on about £3.4 million.

"We've trained around 900 people with programmes that are looking to train even bigger numbers.''

Mark described scenes at a maternity hospital attacked by Russian forces, and the resilience of the Ukrainian medics and teams supporting them.

Photographs taken by Mark and his team show parts of the park nearby, destroyed by mortar shells that took down the hospital - and the team of medics who trained with them in a bunker after the attack.

"I visited a maternity hospital in Kherson, which, during peacetime, would be in a lovely location," he said.

"It was deliberately shelled about a fortnight ago.

''Not only did they deliberately shell it, they also then shelled it hours later, to try and catch people coming to pick up their children and to catch the first responders.

"We're training medical professionals who don't normally see trauma, but, due to what's going on, they're seeing it on an everyday basis.

"And we're training them in an underground bunker.

"It's a deliberate policy from the other side to try and degrade civilian humanitarian efforts.

"To attack maternity hospitals, trying to catch families coming out with their newborns - not only does it go against the Geneva Convention, but it's also so very wrong."

Medics4Ukraine assisted medics at the hospital, working from underground bunkers to avoid further attack.

The team's work is funded by donations, many of which come from his hometown in Beer - which Mark says has been vital to the team's efforts.

"I think if the support hadn't been so wholehearted and generous, I would have wondered whether this initiative was going work - but from the very first day, the support has been absolutely incredible," he said.

"It almost feels like a team medal, as much as it reflects all the energy that all these other people have put in. It was everybody's success, and it was an honour.

"This is a huge team effort from the people that support us here in the UK. My partner, an advanced paramedic called Luca Alfatti, we do this together and a lot of the energy and success is down to him.

"It's also down to the Ukrainian volunteers who distribute our supplies around the country.

"The true heroes are the Ukrainian medical professionals who work tirelessly in extremely challenging conditions.

"Our mission is to support them with the skills and knowledge they need to save lives."

"This has been a visceral demonstration of how much they welcome our support and the impact we're having. It's a tangible acknowledgement of how they appreciate, the Ukrainians people appreciate our efforts, too."

Mark aims to continue his work in Ukraine for as long as needed, and urges the public to not forget about the conflict.

"It is now more difficult because obviously, there's other distractions and other conflicts," he said.

"You read the news and there's not so many mentions of Ukraine, but people there are getting killed every single day.

"I really can't see there being any end to the conflict at the moment - certainly, there's no let up from the Russian side.

"But from what I saw and people I spoke to, there's no diminishing in the spirit of resistance to the invasion, and the way that the Ukrainians feel that this has been wholly unfair to them."