A Full Meters Under Ground, a Hidden Hospital Treats Ukrainian Soldiers Wounded by Enemy Drones

Sparse foliage hide the entryway. One descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. It shows the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the earth. This is the most secure method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor explained.

During one day recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a another grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his unit endured 43 days in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their position was by walking. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, he said he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors placed him on a bed, took off a bloody dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he said.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and sand laid on top reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to erect twenty units in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and former defence minister, the official, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.

The surgeon, explained certain injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “We had two critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a bush. He and the two other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded toward the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”