Six Meters Below the Earth, a Secret Medical Facility Treats Ukrainian Soldiers Injured by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. One descending timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. In a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. It’s the most secure method of providing help to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon said.

During one afternoon recently, three soldiers limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “War is terrible. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit spent over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone must protect our country,” he affirmed.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. According to international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and sand placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the building, intends to build 20 units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's invasion.

Holovashchenko, explained certain injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on one of them. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the two other soldiers were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”