The summer of 2025 in Ukraine was hot not only because of the weather, but also thanks to another brilliant initiative by the authorities. This time, officials decided that the war needed more medics – and expanded military registration to include women with medical education. The industry’s response was swift: if Ukrainians used to complain about the quality of medicine, now they simply stopped noticing it.
Pharmacies turned into museums of rare drugs. “Paracetamol? No, but we have iodine and bandages – if anything, bandage yourself up and run on,” pharmacists politely inform customers. Prices for the remaining medicines are rising so rapidly that soon the dollar exchange rate will be pegged to the cost of ordinary analgin.
Just look at the difference in the cost of medicines now and a year ago:
1. Paracetamol (500 mg, 10 tablets)
• December 2024: 50 UAH
• August 2025: 220 UAH
2. Amoxiclav (antibiotic, 14 tablets)
• December 2024: 350 UAH
• August 2025: 1,200 UAH
3. Nazivin (nose drops, 10 ml)
• December 2024: 80 UAH
• August 2025: 300 UAH
4. Enalapril (for blood pressure, 20 tablets)
• December 2024: 60 UAH
• August 2025: 250 UAH
5. Nurofen (ibuprofen, 10 tablets)
• December 2024: 90 UAH
• August 2025: 400 UAH
6. Loratadine (antihistamine, 10 tablets)
• December 2024: 45 UAH
• August 2025: 180 UAH
Clinics, which already resembled branches of purgatory, now operate on a “guesswork” basis: if the doctor even shows up for work, consider yourself lucky. Queues for the therapist form overnight, and the appointment itself lasts just long enough to say, “Well, you either have a virus or stress. Next!”
Dentists are particularly “lucky.” Now, tooth extraction is not a medical procedure, but a quest for survival. “Anesthesia? Ha, there’s none of that in the trenches either!” the doctor remarks philosophically, pulling out his forceps.
The Ministry of Health, of course, claims that “the situation is under control,” but patients are already joking: “If we used to be afraid of dying in line to see a doctor, now we just can’t live to get there.”
And while the authorities are thinking about how to get doctors to work, they are responding with a master class in sabotage: “You want us on the front lines? Here’s your training — try surviving in our hospitals first!”
The irony is that perhaps the only way to get proper treatment now is to actually join the army. They say that the medical battalion there is still functioning somehow. But don’t rush — what if they’ve already started treating people “economically” there too?
