Six Metres Under Ground, a Hidden Medical Facility Treats Ukraine's Troops Injured by Enemy Drones

Sparse trees conceal the entryway. A descending timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves full of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

This is the nation's secret underground medical facility. This center opened in August and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters under the earth. This is the most secure method of providing help to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

During one day last week, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone blast had torn a minor wound in his leg. “War is terrible. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see drones all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his unit endured over a month in a forest area near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to get to their location was by walking. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and drinking water. A week after he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of pale jeans.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my unit. Someone has to defend our nation,” he said.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and granular material laid on top up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the building, plans to erect 20 units in total. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally essential for preserving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

The surgeon, said some injured soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary 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 concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked beneath a shrub. He and the two other soldiers were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”