Six Meters Under Ground, a Hidden Medical Facility Treats Ukraine's Troops Wounded by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sparse trees conceal the entrance. A sloping wooden tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters under the earth. It’s the most secure way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter few bullet injuries. It’s an era of drones and a new type of war,” the surgeon said.

On one afternoon last week, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent 43 days in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a nurse provided him with fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, he said he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a bloody dressing and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone must protect our country,” he said.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 units in all. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “critically essential for saving the survival of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “We had a pair of critically ill patients who came at 3am. I had to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in medicine for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a bush. The patient and the other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”