Six Meters Under the Earth, a Hidden Hospital Cares for Ukraine's Troops Injured by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Scrubby foliage hide the entryway. A descending wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus cabinets full of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Welcome to the nation's secret underground medical facility. This center opened in August and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. It’s the most secure way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon explained.

On one afternoon last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to get to their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a bed, took off a stained bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he said.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to build 20 units in all. A senior official of the nation's national security council and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. The patient and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”