Scrubby foliage conceal the entryway. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of extra garments. In a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they weave in the air above.
Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center observe a screen displaying enemy suicide and reconnaissance drones in the area.
This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. This center opened in August and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the earth. This is the safest way of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.
This medical station treats 30-40 patients a day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon explained.
Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for treating injured soldiers in the eastern region.
On one afternoon last week, three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “War is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”
The soldier said his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to reach their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and water. A week after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.
The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV drone ripped a minor injury in his leg.
Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to survive. A relative has been lost. There are continuous explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.
Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a stained bandage and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he said.
Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.
Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above up to the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by drone.
The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the building, plans to build 20 units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.
An example of the facility's surgical rooms.
The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.
Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the two other military members were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”
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