Why we’re still in Russia

For more than a month a cruel war has been raging in Ukraine – a war of aggression started by the Russian leadership, and one I strongly condemn. Our greatest concern and special commitment right now are the protection of our employees in Ukraine and caring for our patients, who remain in urgent need of our medical assistance.

Our brave colleagues from Fresenius Medical Care recently succeeded in evacuating the patients of our two dialysis clinics in Chernihiv and Kharkiv, two Ukrainian cities severely affected by the fighting, and then getting them to relative safety together with their family members. In addition, we are working intensively with humanitarian organizations in the region to supply Ukrainian hospitals with essential medical products for emergency care, urgently needed blood reserves, and medicines.

Our responsibility as a healthcare company also includes not abandoning our patients in Russia but continuing to provide them with medical care. It is a simple matter to just shut down a fast-food restaurant. But not a dialysis clinic. If Fresenius produced consumer goods we would have immediately pulled out of Russia. But we are a healthcare company. Our patients depend on our life-saving products and services – in Russia, as well. There are simply no substitutes available to patients in that country, at least not in the short term. Even though it is Russian soldiers who started shooting and bombing people in the Ukraine, we cannot and must not set human lives against each other.

For all our justified anger at the vicious and despicable behavior of the Russian regime, we should not allow ourselves to fall into cold cynicism. We have a special responsibility for the lives and health of our patients – all our patients. We cannot simply refuse them life-saving treatments and coldly stand aside and let them die. This is especially true for our doctors, who have sworn an oath to protect human life.

I can assure you that there is no financial incentive for us to continue caring for patients in Russia. We are not making any money there, and will not in the foreseeable future.

It should be remembered that we not only have colleagues in Russia and Ukraine, but colleagues around the world whose roots go back to these countries. I have learned that they are working collegially with each other and in solidarity with the people affected by this war. I am proud of that, and hope it will continue in the coming weeks and months.

Let us all hope that the Russian leadership will soon come to its senses. The fighting and killing in Ukraine must stop. President Putin has this in his power. I wish with all my heart that the violence ends, and that peace is restored in this region.

Yours sincerely,

Stephan Sturm, CEO of Fresenius