Six Meters Under the Earth, a Hidden Medical Facility Treats Ukrainian Troops Wounded by Enemy Drones

Scrubby trees hide the entryway. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

This is the nation's covert underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the earth. It’s the most secure way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

On one day recently, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to remain alive. A relative has been killed. There are ongoing detonations.” A builder working in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. After that, to return to my unit. Someone has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand assaults. The underground facility is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to erect twenty units in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for saving the survival of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported because of the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a bush. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, padded toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”