A Full Meters Below Ground, a Secret Medical Facility Treats Ukraine's Troops Injured by Enemy Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

Sparse trees conceal the entrance. One descending timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus shelves full of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

This is Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres under the ground. This is the safest way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which release grenades with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

During one day last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is demolished. There are drones all around and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent 43 days in a forest area near the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Our forces must defend our country,” he said.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and sand placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the building, plans to build twenty facilities in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for saving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.

The surgeon, explained some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “We had two severely injured casualties who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. His bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in medicine for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a shrub. He and the other military members were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, padded toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”