A 27-year-old double bass player with the combat name “Bass” works in a secret training camp on the outskirts of Kiev with special recruits: he is responsible for training the new Hospitallers paramedics. The basic training lasts a week, with free board and no entry fee. The Hospitallers are celebrated in Ukraine for their brave and selfless work. ARTE:re was the first foreign TV crew to accompany them for a week.

800 kilometers further east in the embattled territories live those who have long since completed Bass’s basic training. Katja (27), Domino (21) and Max (33) have set up their supply center in an abandoned farmhouse just a few kilometers behind the front line. Only around 50 civilians still live in the village, without running water, but with the dull roar of daily artillery fire. Katja, who normally works as a graphic designer, has not even told her parents about her dangerous assignment.

What does the brutality of war do to the lives of the three young Hospitallers? What hope do they have left? And can their service really help to strengthen the Ukrainian army?

The three Hospitallers often ask themselves these frightening questions. Because even routine trips by ambulance to the nearest hospital are life-threatening. Max explains that, “the Russians deliberately hunt down ambulances.”

“ARTE_re: Ukrainian Paramedics at the Frontline” is a story of everyday life behind the frontline, of the slow pace of the war and the constant commitment of the volunteer medics.