Six Metres Under Ground, a Secret Hospital Cares for Ukrainian Soldiers Injured by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sparse trees conceal the entryway. One sloping timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. This is the safest method of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which drop grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

On one day last week, three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is demolished. We see UAVs all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and water. A week after he was hurt, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. There are ongoing detonations.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he said he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a stained bandage and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to go back to my unit. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which funded the building, intends to build 20 units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “critically important for preserving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of air assaults. “We had two critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. He and the two other military members were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”