Your support helps us to tell the story
Ukraine has built its first steel, underground frontline hospital in a bid to provide “critical” first aid to severely wounded soldiers.
The complex, which comprises two full-scale operating theatres and six enlarged steel bunkers, is capable of housing around 100 soldiers. The Ministry of Defence said the hospital is capable of both stabilising the wounded and performing up to four surgeries simultaneously.
It has been supplied with alternative power sources, ventilation and water supply, allowing it to operate without additional support if the area comes under threat.
While its steel reinforcements will provide protection against Russian artillery, it is also equipped with electronic warfare intended to further reduce the threat of Russian aerial attacks.
During the installation of the underground hospital, additional security measures were taken to protect against exposure of its location and potential enemy attacks on the facility. It is believed that the hospital is located in eastern Ukraine.
As Russian forces advance in that area of Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region, Kyiv is looking to shore up its defences. Providing more frontline care is aimed at alleviating the impact that high casualty rates, worsened by a lack of rotation from the front, are having both on troop morale and its ability to defend territory.
Ukrainian defence minister Rustem Umerov said the hospital is just “the first step in a large-scale project that will strengthen our medical infrastructure and allow us to provide even more effective support to our frontline defenders”.
“Such underground stabilisation points are critical for saving the lives of our service members,” he added.
“In the heat of intense hostilities, we must deliver maximum protection and immediate medical care to our heroes.”
The project cost an estimated £371,000, with nearly half of that spent on medical equipment. It was built with the help of Ukrainian steel tycoon and billionaire Rinat Akhmetov, a former lawmaker, and the Metinvest Group, a Ukrainian steel and mining company.
Roman Kuzev, acting commander of the medical forces group “East”, described the hospital as the “best stabilisation centre available”.
“This underground hospital is the best stabilisation centre available. It will allow us to provide medical care to over 100 patients a day, saving hundreds of lives of our heroes,” he said. “I hope the number of such facilities will grow.”
Oleksandr Myronenko, chief operating officer of Metinvest Group, said: “A medical hospital located many metres underground is the most ambitious and challenging project we have had to implement since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative.
“Every minute counts in saving the lives of Ukrainian defenders. We have made every effort not to waste this precious time and to ensure that our doctors have everything they need to provide timely and effective aid.”
Steel facilities near the frontline have been used previously by Ukrainian forces but only as shelters, not independent medical facilities.
