Hell, horror and heroism in Ukraine’s battlefield hospitals

CUT DEEP into the innards of the southern front, Ukraine’s first underground hospital feels like something out of a James Bond movie. State-of-the-art gadgetry begins with admissions. Wounded soldiers arrive directly from the battlefield: in cars, in ambulances, on quad bikes. They are assessed and colour-coded into modules by urgency: “red zone” cases for immediate operations, “yellow zone” for other treatment. Alongside an operating theatre, enclosed in steel barrels several metres below ground level, is an intensive-care unit. There is even a laboratory for blood tests. The centre is set up for sophisticated operations: bone repair, soft-tissue reconstruction, arterial bypass surgery.