Six Meters Below the Earth, a Secret Medical Facility Treats Ukraine's Troops Wounded by Russian Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. A descending wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. This center opened in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the ground. It’s the safest way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

On one day last week, a group of three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces released a second explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is destroyed. There are UAVs everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit endured over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to reach their location was on foot. All supplies came by drone: food and water. A week after he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a bed, took off a bloody dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and sand placed above up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build twenty facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's military offensive.

Holovashchenko, explained some injured personnel had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of critically ill patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe operations? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. One must concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, Vasilevs, padded toward the doorway to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”