A cruel war has been raging in Ukraine for a good two months - a war of aggression started by the Russian leadership, which I condemn in the strongest possible terms.

As a healthcare company, Fresenius fights for life.

Putin's army is fighting to lay waste to an entire country.

And ends many lives with a contempt for human beings and brutality that also leaves me stunned.

On the other hand, I am proud of the heroic achievements of our employees in Ukraine.

Up until the beginning of the war, we operated, among other things, three dialysis centers in the country.

Chronic kidney disease patients receive their regular and vital blood wash there.

Two of the centers are in Kharkiv and Chernihiv - city names that we all know now since the ruthless Russian attacks.

Anger at a system that allows such barbaric warmongering

For weeks, our workers kept the business running, despite the incessant bombardment, the escalating situation, and constant concern for the well-being of their families as well as their own.

At the end of March we finally managed to evacuate the patients from both dialysis centers together with their relatives and bring them to relative safety.

In addition, our employees work tirelessly to bring urgently needed medicines, blood products and other medical products into the country, despite the increasingly complicated logistics.

On the one hand, hearing this and many similar stories touches me deeply.

On the other hand, it also makes me incredibly angry.

Angry at Russian President Vladimir Putin and angry at a system that allows such barbaric warmongering.

And yet Fresenius is still active in Russia and will remain so.

Because that is also part of our responsibility as a healthcare group.

We operate around 100 dialysis centers in Russia and supply hospitals and other institutions with important pharmaceuticals and clinical nutrition.

Even in the face of the atrocities in Bucha and many other places, we cannot simply abandon our patients in Russia.

We must continue to provide them with medical care.

A fast-food restaurant is easy to close – a dialysis center is not.

If Fresenius were a consumer goods manufacturer, we would have withdrawn from Russia long ago.

But we are a healthcare company.

Committed to protecting life and health

Our patients depend on our vital and life-saving products and services – also in Russia.

There is no substitute there, at least not in the short term.

And even if it is Russian soldiers who are fighting and killing in Ukraine - we cannot and must not set human lives against each other.

That would rob us of our humanity.

I can understand the impulse to want to set an example.

Something to do about the terrible crimes committed by the Russian regime and the Russian army.

With all justified anger, however, we must not allow ourselves to be carried away to cold cynicism.

We are committed to protecting the life and health of our patients - all of our patients.

We cannot simply deny them vital treatment and then let them die in cold blood.

And our doctors, who have sworn an oath, certainly cannot.

Incidentally, this is also the reason why medicines, just like foodstuffs, are generally never affected, even by the heaviest sanctions.

All investments have been put on hold

I can assure you that there are absolutely no economic reasons for maintaining patient care in Russia: we are not currently making any money there and will not be so for the foreseeable future.

And of course the current Russia cannot be a market where we continue to expand.

We have put all investments there on hold.

And we will continue to offer only what our patients urgently need in Russia.

I sincerely hope for a change of heart on the part of the Russian leadership.

The fighting and senseless dying in Ukraine must stop immediately.

President Putin has it in his hands.

I wish with all my heart an end to the violence and peace in the region.

Stephan Sturm is CEO of the Fresenius healthcare group.