Six Meters Under the Earth, a Hidden Hospital Cares for Ukrainian Soldiers Injured by Enemy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Scrubby trees hide the entryway. One sloping timber passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a screen. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

This is the nation's secret below-ground hospital. 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 the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres under the earth. It’s the most secure method of providing help to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

During one afternoon last week, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see drones all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to get to their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a stained dressing and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Our forces must protect our nation,” he said.

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is constructed from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand placed above reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the construction, plans to erect 20 units in total. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

The surgeon, said some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. The patient and the two other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”