Six Meters Under Ground, a Hidden Hospital Cares for Ukrainian Soldiers Injured by Russian Drones

Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One sloping timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

This is the nation's covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. This is the safest way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of enemy FPV drones, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon said.

During one afternoon last week, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had torn a minor wound in his limb. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a another grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit endured over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic assessed his vital signs. Following care, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale jeans.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, he noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. After that, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our country,” he affirmed.

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to erect 20 facilities in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The company described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's invasion.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of air assaults. “We had two critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the two other soldiers were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”