🔗 Share this article

Sparse trees conceal the entryway. One descending timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Hospital staff at an underground hospital observe a screen showing enemy suicide and surveillance drones in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. The facility opened in August and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. This is the most secure method of providing help to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which release explosives with lethal precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for treating injured troops in the eastern region.

On one day recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone explosion had torn a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces dropped a second 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 explained his squad spent over a month in a forest area near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view aerial device caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A builder working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 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 stained dressing and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces must protect our country,” he said.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to erect twenty units in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former military leader, the official, said they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of air assaults. “We had a pair of severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the two other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”