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

Sparse foliage conceal the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. This is the most secure method of providing help to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

On one day last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had torn a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad endured over a month in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to reach their location was on foot. All supplies came by drone: rations and water. Seven days after he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse gave him fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces must protect our country,” he affirmed.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically essential for saving the survival of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after Russia’s invasion.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded soldiers had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a shrub. He and the other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are open around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”