Six Metres Below the Earth, a Secret Medical Facility Treats Ukraine's Troops Wounded by Russian Drones

Sparse trees hide the entrance. One sloping wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

This is the nation's secret below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the earth. It’s the safest way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see few bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

On one day recently, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see drones all around and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their position was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and water. A week after he was injured, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A builder working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Someone has to defend our nation,” he said.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand assaults. The underground facility is built from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and sand laid on top reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, plans to build twenty facilities in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's military offensive.

Holovashchenko, said some injured personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in medicine for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the two other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”