'It doesn't stop' A world of trauma in Ukraine's underground hospital

Scrubby trees hide the entrance. A sloping wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators.

- Luke Harding

And shelves of medical equipment, drugs and piles of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones. Welcome to Ukraine's secret underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine near the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk, in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres below the earth. It’s the safest way of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30 to 40 patients a day. Some have catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop grenades with lethal accuracy. “About 90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see few bullet injuries. It’s an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon said.

Last week three soldiers limped into the facility. Artem Dvorskyi, 28, said an FPV explosion ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.”