The prestigious British newspaper "The Guardian" has dedicated a detailed article to one of the most unique medical projects underway in Ukraine: a secret underground hospital, built specifically to treat soldiers wounded by Russian drones near the front line in the east of the country.
The facility is reportedly located about six meters underground in a wooded area near the town of Pokrovsk, in the Donetsk region. The hospital opened in August and is the second of its kind to operate in eastern Ukraine. It is designed to ensure maximum safety for both patients and medical personnel in a war where healthcare infrastructure has become a constant target of air and drone strikes.
Inside the underground hospital
According to The Guardian, the hospital's entrance is hidden among dense trees, while a sloping wooden tunnel leads to a well-lit waiting area. Inside is a modern surgical unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors, ventilators and shelves full of medicines, medical equipment and spare clothes.
A monitoring system has been installed in a staff room that tracks in real time the movements of Russian spy drones in the airspace above the area. “We are six meters underground. This is the safest way to help our wounded soldiers and protect the lives of medical staff,” said the unit’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.
30 to 40 patients every day
The hospital treats 30-40 patients a day, most of whom are victims of first-person view (FPV) drones – a deadly weapon that fires grenades with high precision. “About 90% of our cases are from FPV. We see very few bullet wounds. It’s a new era, the era of drones, and a different form of warfare,” Holovashchenko said. Among the patients are soldiers with severe limb injuries, abdominal wounds or blast injuries. Artem Dvorskyi, 28, told the newspaper that an FPV drone exploded near him, wounding his leg. “War is terrible. The boy next to me, Vasyl, was killed. After the first explosion, the Russians dropped a second grenade. In the village everything is destroyed, there are drones everywhere and bodies – ours and theirs,” he said.
Another patient, Pavlo Filipchuk, 38, said he was injured by an explosion that left him severely shaken. “Suddenly everything went black. I couldn’t feel anything. I think I was lucky to survive,” he said. Filipchuk, a construction worker in Lithuania, had returned to his homeland just days before the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022 to join the Ukrainian army as a volunteer.
A modern fortification against bombing
Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly targeted hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. According to human rights organizations, about 2,000 attacks have hit health facilities, resulting in the deaths of 261 medical workers.
For this reason, the underground hospital is built to withstand direct hits. It consists of four steel bunkers, reinforced with wooden beams and layers of sand on the surface. According to the designers, the structure can withstand 152 mm artillery strikes and up to three 8 kg TNT charges dropped by combat drones.
A national project to save lives
The facility is being financed by Ukrainian steel and mining company Metinvest, which has announced plans to build 20 similar units along the front line. The head of Ukraine’s National Security Council and former Defense Minister Rustem Umerov called the project “extremely important for saving the lives of soldiers and supporting the country’s defenders.” In a statement, Metinvest described the construction of the underground hospitals as the most ambitious and challenging project undertaken since the beginning of the Russian occupation.
