Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One descending wooden passageway descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.
Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a screen showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.
This is Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the earth. This is the safest method of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the facility's surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.
This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries necessitating amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a new type of conflict,” the doctor said.
Major the senior surgeon at the underground facility for caring for injured troops in eastern Ukraine.
During one afternoon recently, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs all around and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”
The soldier explained his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and water. A week after he was injured, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.
Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a first-person view aerial device ripped a small hole in his leg.
Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.
A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Someone has to defend our nation,” he said.
Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.
Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by drone.
A major steel and mining company, which financed the construction, plans to erect 20 facilities in total. The head of the nation's national security council and former military leader, the official, said they would be “vitally essential for saving the lives of our armed forces and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.
An example of the facility's operating theatres.
The surgeon, said some injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.
Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. He and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded toward the entrance to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”
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