🔗 Share this article

Sparse foliage hide the entrance. One descending timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean hospital look at a screen showing enemy kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. It’s the safest method of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces dropped a second grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. A week following he was injured, 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 assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV aerial device ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, removed a stained dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he said.

Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and sand laid on top up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build twenty facilities in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken after Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said some injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe operations? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a bush. He and the two other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”