Military medics urge media keep secret locations of field hospitals
The Command of Ukraine Army's Medical Forces has called on the media not to publish detailed information about hospitals.
"During wartime, it is not necessary to name a medical institution and a settlement where it is located in video reports and articles. Why? Because the enemy is interested in destroying medical facilities in which servicemen are being treated to go rejoin the army ranks," the command said.
The Medical Forces urge journalists to not show medics' faces in their reports so as not to put them in danger. Medical facilities should be shown without distinctive features that would allow the enemy to identify and locate them. It is worth using generalized descriptions as the military media do: "one of the hospitals in Ukraine" or "one of the hospitals in the country's south."
"The enemy may use an online search engine but Google Maps doesn't tell you what kind of surgeries are conducted in the facility or which doctors performs them. Neither does the search engine reveal the flow of the wounded, thank a specific medical institution for saving lives, or disclose its location and role in the healthcare system under martial law," reads the post.
"Currently, simply trust the military that publishing detailed information about a medical institution, where wounded military and civilians are treated, puts everyone at risk — the institution, its doctors, and patients. It was a video about one of the regional hospitals in a big city, broadcast this morning on the nationwide telethon, which prompted this post. The video disclosed all the details as if it was shot for the enemy's intelligence," said the Medical Forces command.
The Medical Forces have also published the "before" and "after" photos of the field hospital following the publication of the report about its work.
