Local doctor describes conditions in Ukraine as war with Russia nears 3-year mark
LEAWOOD, Kansas. (KCTV) — Dr. Rick Randolph sat comfortably in his Leawood home Friday night as his cocker spaniel Lola frolicked at his feet, his memories vivid of the war-torn country he had spent two weeks in earlier this month.
He is part of a team of medical volunteers with Global Care Force, a non-profit based in Lenexa. Their volunteers make monthly visits to Ukraine, driving for hours each day to small villages where care is otherwise hard to get.
“The villages that are up there, really, nobody has gone back in there to build them up because they’re relatively close to the front,” he said. “We could hear the artillery.”
Randolph wasn’t rattled by the sounds because they were familiar. After graduating West Point, he spent seven years in the Army’s artillery forces. He was in that role in , stationed near the East German border. In that time, he developed an affection for the people to the east. Global Care Force has teams in many underserved countries, but the need in Ukraine spoke to him as a calling.
“(We’re) taking care of patients who wouldn’t have anything unless we were there,” he said of the most rewarding part of the visits.
Randolph’s first trip was in November. He returned from his most recent trip on Monday. Some of the clinics he’s been involved with are set up in homes.
“They are without power, so we’re often operating with just headlamps, no heat, except for maybe a stove off in the corner of one of the rooms,” Randolph said.
The non-profit rotates the teams that travel and collaborate with Ukrainian volunteers.
Their focus is on treating chronic illnesses like high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease and lung disease as well PTSD. They bring their own medication.
“It doesn’t work unless you do have continuous care,” Randolph remarked. “So, another team from global care force will come back in a month and see patients in the same villages. Occasionally, some villages, if they’re real small, might be rotating every two months, but there’s always going to be follow up for the people we see there.”
A MILESTONE NO ONE WANTED
Monday will mark three years since Russia began this latest war by invading Ukraine as people slept. Global Care Force has been sending medical volunteers there monthly since day one.
Back in the United States, President Donald Trump has vowed to broker a peace deal. In recent days it has devolved into a war of words between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump claimed falsely that Ukraine started the war. Zelenskyy said Trump was “living in this disinformation space.” Trump then called Zelenskyy “a dictator.”
Asked how the patients he met perceived the efforts, Randolph said he saw a change in their perspective between his November visit and his visit this month.
They had expressed frustrated by the pace at which the Biden istration provided aid, he explained, so they were optimistic when Trump was elected in November — hoping his blunt approach would improve the situation.
He still saw some optimism during this month’s visit, but it’s changed.
“Right now, it’s just a lot of confusion,” Randolph said. “They don’t know where he’s coming from or where he’s going.”
Randolph said they are eager to see a deal brokered but worry Putin could use a ceasefire to build Russia’s military back up — then return years later.
“They’re definitely tired of the war,” he said. “They would love the war to end, but it has to end in a way that it will stay ended.”
Randolph said the hardest part of his trips is leaving the patients and Ukrainian staff he has grown fond of. He will be returning in May, whether the war is over or not, to continue his calling.
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