Doctor, 74, volunteers for war as Northern Russia loses medical staff
Physicians from the city hospital of Kotlas, Arkhangelsk region, regularly head to the front. Meanwhile, local residents complain about staff shortages and the quality of medical care.
Sergei Khabarov, head of the intensive care department at Kotlas City Hospital, has gone to the “special military operation” and joined a volunteer medical unit. Ahead of his departure, the former head physician of the hospital, Khizri Ilyasov, published a photograph of the two men together. On his social media page, Ilyasov wrote that Khabarov (74) despite his age, remains a “man of steel” with “enormous energy and a desire to help the country”.
Readers reacted to the news in different ways. Some saw the anaesthetist and intensive-care specialist’s decision as purely pragmatic: “He went to make money; they don’t pay much in Kotlas.” Others sent the doctor their “deepest respect”, while some were outraged that “soon they’ll be taking veterans of the Great Patriotic War there”.
Ilyasov himself went to the “special military operation” zone in May, as he also announced on social media. According to him, he became the head of a volunteer medical unit.
“We are all soldiers of our country. We were trained for this, and I could not stand aside: as soon as the opportunity arose, I went. I left for the place where the country currently needs men and doctors. For me, it is an honour to stand alongside those who are defending the Motherland,” Ilyasov said. According to him, his brother, who was an officer, was seriously wounded in 2024.
According to newspaper 29.ru, participation in the full-scale invasion of Ukraine is not the former Kotlas hospital chief’s first military mission. The publication writes that “in the past, Khizri Ilyasov had already received military awards”. These include a “state award for special missions in Syria”, the Zhukov Medal awarded by the Russian president, the Medal “For Combat Service”, and the Medal “For Military Valour”.
Ilyasov headed three hospitals in the Arkhangelsk region – Kotlas City Hospital, as well as the district hospitals in Verkhnyaya Toyma and Konosha. In December 2025, residents of Konosha District recorded a video appeal to Putin and regional Governor Alexander Tsybulsky, complaining about the quality of healthcare in the region, including staff shortages, particularly among surgeons.
“The chief doctor of the Konosha District Hospital, who recently took up his duties, is determined to close our medical centre, arguing that the building is old and there are few residents. Our medical worker is employed on a 0.5 position. She was not allowed to undergo retraining, and she was refused firewood, with the explanation that the medical centre would be closed from the New Year. But we really need it,” the appeal said.
In response, Khizri Ilyasov called the district’s residents provocateurs and published a video response featuring medical staff. In the video, they asked people “not to interfere with their work” and claimed that the facility’s “doors are open to everyone”.
In April, Ilyasov announced that he was stepping down as chief doctor and, “in accordance with army tradition”, left the future head of Kotlas City Hospital a bottle of vodka and three envelopes for use in the event of crisis situations, expressing hope that “he would not need them”.
Ilyasov regularly posts news on his page about “new recruits” joining the volunteer medical unit. On 20 August, he published a photograph of himself with Sergei Ivanov, a paramedic in the emergency department of Kotlas City Hospital.
“The desire of young men to contribute to the common cause of victory and help the wounded speaks of a deep sense of patriotism and dedication to their work,” the former chief doctor said.
In July, Ilyasov published a photograph with Regina Lepa, an anaesthesia nurse at Kotlas City Hospital. He noted that his subordinate would have to work in an operating theatre under air-raid alerts.
“We have amazing and very brave girls here in the North. Six months of combat duty lie ahead,” the medic wrote.
Ilyasov’s social media page also contains reports of Russian medical workers being killed in the war. For example, in July he published an obituary for Igor Khabaev, commander of the medical company of military unit 46108. The post said that he “fell a hero’s death on 27 June 2026, fulfilling to the end his duty as an Officer and Doctor”.
Ilyasov does not say how long his colleagues from the Arkhangelsk region are expected to remain at the front. When asked at the information desk of Kotlas City Hospital when the intensive-care specialist Sergei Khabarov would be available for contact, staff replied that he was “on leave until September”.
