A Full Metres Under the Earth, a Secret Medical Facility Treats Ukrainian Troops Wounded by Enemy Drones

Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. A sloping wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

This is the nation's covert underground hospital. This center opened in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres under the ground. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release grenades with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

On one afternoon recently, a group of three soldiers limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit spent over a month in a forest area near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a nurse provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder working in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as doctors placed him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our country,” he said.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and sand placed above up to ground level. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, plans to build 20 units in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken after Russia’s invasion.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of air assaults. “We had a pair of critically ill patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in medicine for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the two other military members were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”