'Still processing': Montreal doctor evacuated Ukrainian patients at train station just days before attack
Just days before a missile struck a Ukrainian railroad station, claiming dozens of lives, one Quebec doctor was helping hospital patients onto trains at that very spot.
Now, Dr. Joanne Liu is back home — and she says watching the destruction from afar has been devastating and "difficult to process."
"When you're in those kind of moments where people are fleeing, fleeing for their life, you think that somehow it will be respected," Liu told CTV News.
About 4,000 civilians had been near the station in Kramatorsk the day the missile hit, most of them women and children attempting to flee the Donbas region, where fighting is expected to intensify.
"It was an evacuation spot," said Liu, who is a Montreal emergency physician and the former international president of Doctors Without Borders. "So the fact that there was this attack on this train station is really outraging, to say the least, because it was done during the daytime when it was at the busiest of the activities."
Photos from the scene show bodies covered in tarps, with abandoned suitcases and children's toys scattered outside the station.
At least 52 died in the attack and over 100 people were injured.
Liu said that despite heightened risks, doctors remain committed to continue their work on the front lines.
"We're still processing what happened," she said. "It brings a new load of challenges to a certain extent. But we are going to continue to do that for the time being."
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Indian envoy warns of 'big red line,' days after charges laid in Nijjar case
India's envoy to Canada insists relations between the two countries are positive overall, despite what he describes as 'a lot of noise.'
Former homicide detective explains how police will investigate shooting outside Drake's Bridle Path mansion
Footage from dozens of security cameras in the area of Drake’s Bridle Path mansion could be the key to identifying the suspect responsible for shooting and seriously injuring a security guard outside the rapper’s sprawling home early Tuesday morning, a former Toronto homicide detective says.
Stormy Daniels describes meeting Trump during occasionally graphic testimony in hush money trial
With Donald Trump sitting just feet away, Stormy Daniels testified Tuesday at the former president's hush money trial about a sexual encounter the porn actor says they had in 2006 that resulted in her being paid to keep silent during the presidential race 10 years later.
Alcohol believed to be a factor in boating incident after 2 men die: N.S. RCMP
Two Nova Scotia men are dead after a boat they were travelling in sank in the Annapolis River in Granville Centre, N.S., on Monday.
Northern Ont. woman makes 'eggstraordinary' find
A chicken farmer near Mattawa made an 'eggstraordinary' find Friday morning when she discovered one of her hens laid an egg close to three times the size of an average large chicken egg.
Susan Buckner, who played spirited cheerleader Patty Simcox in 'Grease,' dead at 72
Susan Buckner, best known for playing peppy Rydell High School cheerleader Patty Simcox in the 1978 classic movie musical 'Grease,' has died. She was 72.
Jeremy Skibicki has 'uphill battle' to prove he's not criminally responsible in Winnipeg killings: legal analysts
Accused killer Jeremy Skibicki could have a challenging time convincing a judge that he is not criminally responsible for the deaths of four Indigenous women, a legal analyst says.
Bye-bye bag fee: Calgary repeals single-use bylaw
A Calgary bylaw requiring businesses to charge a minimum bag fee and only provide single-use items when requested has officially been tossed.
CFL suspends Argos QB Chad Kelly at least nine games following investigation
The CFL suspended Toronto Argonauts quarterback Chad Kelly for at least nine regular-season games Tuesday following its investigation into a lawsuit filed by a former strength-and-conditioning coach against both the player and club.