A Full Metres Below Ground, a Secret Medical Facility Cares for Ukraine's Troops Injured by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Scrubby foliage hide the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground hospital. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres under the earth. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles 30-40 casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which drop grenades with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon said.

On one day recently, three military members limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is demolished. We see UAVs all around and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his unit spent 43 days in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to get to their position was on foot. All supplies came by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic assessed his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a bed, took off a stained dressing and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the construction, plans to erect twenty facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for saving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's invasion.

The surgeon, said certain wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be transported because of the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in medicine for 20 years. You have to focus,” he said.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, padded toward the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”