Six Meters Under the Earth, a Hidden Hospital Treats Ukrainian Troops Wounded by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sparse trees hide the entrance. One descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a screen. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres under the earth. It’s the safest way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which drop explosives with lethal precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor explained.

On one afternoon last week, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones all around and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad endured over a month in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and water. A week after he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are continuous detonations.” A builder working in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a stained dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery struck me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” 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 defend our country,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build 20 units in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after the enemy's military offensive.

Holovashchenko, explained certain wounded personnel had to wait hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of air assaults. “We had a pair of critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. I had to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a bush. The patient and the two other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”