Surgical team to travel to Ukraine

An Irish-funded surgical team has decided to run the gauntlet of violence in Ukraine to perform live- saving open-heart surgery on children.

Despite the volatile situation in the secessionist pro-Russian border region, the Chernobyl Children International aid agency’s team of surgeons will land in eastern Ukraine next week to perform operations on 60 children suffering from genetic heart defects.

The team of specialists — from the US, Canada, and Nicaragua — has twice postponed the mission because of the level of violence in the region.