A Full Metres Under the Earth, a Secret Medical Facility Treats Ukraine's Troops Wounded by Enemy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sparse foliage hide the entrance. One descending timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters under the earth. It’s the safest method of providing help to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

On one afternoon recently, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. There are drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad endured 43 days in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: food and water. A week after he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to call his sister. “A fragment of artillery struck me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, plans to erect 20 units in all. A senior official of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded personnel had to endure delays many hours or even days before they could be transported because of the danger of air assaults. “We had two severely injured patients who came at 3am. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked under a shrub. He and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”