A Full Metres Below Ground, a Secret Medical Facility Cares for Ukraine's Troops Wounded by Russian Drones

Scrubby foliage conceal the entryway. One descending timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs 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 such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the earth. It’s the safest method of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV aerial devices, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon explained.

On one day recently, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones all around and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent over a month in a forest area close to the city, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to reach their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: food and water. A week following he was injured, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. 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 volunteered to fight shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his sister. “A piece of artillery struck me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand placed above reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically essential for saving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken after Russia’s military offensive.

The surgeon, said certain wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured casualties who arrived at 3am. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet 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. One must focus,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was parked beneath a bush. The patient and the two other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”