Six Meters Under the Earth, a Hidden Hospital Cares for Ukraine's Troops Injured by Enemy Drones

Sparse trees hide the entrance. A sloping timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. The facility began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. It’s the most secure way of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the doctor said.

During one day last week, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad spent 43 days 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 by walking. All supplies came by drone: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale jeans.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he said.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and sand placed above reaching ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to build twenty units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and former defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

Holovashchenko, said some injured soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with severe operations? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”