A Full Metres Below the Earth, a Secret Medical Facility Treats Ukrainian Troops Wounded by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

This is Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month 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. “We are 6 metres below the ground. This is the safest way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

During one day recently, a group of three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit endured over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. Seven days following 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 medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces has to defend our country,” he affirmed.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to erect twenty facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s invasion.

Holovashchenko, said some injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was parked beneath a bush. The patient and the other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”