🔗 Share this article

Scrubby trees hide the entrance. One sloping timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets stocked of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

Medical staff at an underground medical center look at a monitor showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground hospital. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. It’s the safest method of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor said.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one afternoon recently, a group of three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. We see UAVs all around and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit spent 43 days in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and drinking water. A week after he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

The soldier, 28, stated a FPV drone caused a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he said.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to build 20 units in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for saving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken after Russia’s invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. I had to perform a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a shrub. He and the two other military members were taken to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”