Six Meters Under the Earth, a Hidden Hospital Cares for Ukrainian Troops Injured by Russian Drones

Sparse trees conceal the entrance. One sloping timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. 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, physicians monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground medical facility. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. This is the most secure way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

On one day recently, three military members limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone explosion had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a another grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their location was by walking. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned 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 ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. After that, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to build twenty units in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and former military leader, the official, said they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s invasion.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured soldiers had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. I had to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a shrub. The patient and the other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, padded up to the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”