Six Metres Under Ground, a Secret Hospital Treats Ukraine's Soldiers Injured by Russian Drones

Scrubby trees hide the entryway. A descending timber tunnel leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And shelves full of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

This is Ukraine’s covert underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the earth. It’s the most secure method of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

During one day recently, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad endured 43 days in a forest area near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their location was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. Seven days after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, he noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a bloody dressing and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. According to international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and sand laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to erect 20 units in all. A senior official of the nation's national security council and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

Holovashchenko, said certain wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. I had to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a shrub. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”