Sparse foliage conceal the entrance. One sloping wooden passageway leads down to a brightly lit reception area. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves stocked of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.
Medical staff at an subterranean hospital look at a screen displaying Russian suicide and reconnaissance drones in the area.
Welcome to the nation's covert below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.
This medical station handles 30-40 casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor explained.
Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded troops in the eastern region.
On one day last week, a group of three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces released a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”
The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: rations and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.
The soldier, twenty-eight, said a first-person view aerial device ripped a small hole in his lower limb.
Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to fight shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a stained dressing and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our country,” he affirmed.
Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.
Over the past years, Russia has consistently attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three 8kg TNT charges released by drone.
The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 facilities in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's military offensive.
One of the centre’s surgical rooms.
Holovashchenko, said certain injured personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had two severely injured casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.
Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the two other military members were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”
