Six Meters Below Ground, a Hidden Medical Facility Treats Ukraine's Soldiers Wounded by Russian Drones

Sparse foliage conceal the entrance. One descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground medical facility. 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 frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the earth. This is the most secure method of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the casualties of enemy FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon said.

On one day recently, three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad endured 43 days in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to reach their location was on foot. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody dressing and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his sister. “A piece of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our country,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the construction, plans to build 20 facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally essential for saving the lives of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

The surgeon, said some injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a bush. The patient and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”