Russian forces may have been pushed from the outskirts of Kyiv, but they are pressing harder along the front in the east and south of the country. A Cape Town doctor has seen a corresponding uptick in the number of refugees and patients at the makeshift medical station where she volunteers.
Dr Natalia Novikova's daily commute these days requires a little more creative thinking than her usual rush-hour drive to and from her doctor's practice in Cape Town's city centre.
On a cool, glistening spring morning on her way to the Ukraine border from her hotel in the nearby Polish town to Przemysl -- now colonised by armies of NGO workers -- Novikova winds her rental car through narrow rural backroads, past fields of dandelions and neat, blossoming backyard orchards.
The 40-something gynaecologist, originally from Kyiv, is here on a volunteer stint treating patients at the Medyka border crossing, which has seen an exodus of refugees since the war began.
This is her second tour to the border after a stint in mid-April -- she can only leave her work and three kids for about a week at a time -- and Novikova is still feeling her way around the...
