Metinvest Group, as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front military initiative, has built the country’s first underground hospital for the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, in coordination with the Vostok Medical Force, to provide primary medical care and stabilize soldiers after they are injured on the front line, investing more than UAH 20 million, the group said in a press release on Tuesday.
For its part, the Ministry of Defense noted in a post on its website that the hospital was the first in a large-scale project implemented by the ministry in coordination with the Vostok Medical Force, and in total it involves the construction of more than two dozen underground staging areas.
It is specified that the first facility is located near the front line and is designed to provide medical care to Ukrainian defenders in the safest possible conditions. The hospital was built on the basis of six enlarged steel bunkers, each of which is 7.6 meters long and 2.5 meters in diameter, developed by Metinvest. Ventilation, water supply, drainage and alternative power sources have been installed to ensure the facility’s operation.
Additional safety measures were taken during the installation of the underground hospital, including the addition of high-powered electronic warfare systems and alternative power sources.
“Such underground stations are critical for saving the lives of our military… This is the first step in a large-scale project that will strengthen our medical infrastructure and allow us to more effectively support our defenders on the front line,” said Defense Minister Rustem Umerov.
“Metinvest clarified that the hospital’s staffing level corresponds to the level of a second echelon field hospital (Role/Echelon 2) in accordance with NATO standards, and the investment included not only the cost of building the hospital but also the cost of its equipment.
“A medical hospital many meters underground is the most ambitious and complex project we have had to implement since the beginning of the full-scale invasion as part of Rinat Akhmetov’s Steel Front initiative,” said Metinvest’s Chief Operating Officer Alexander Mironenko.
It is noted that the steel underground hospital is not inferior to civilian hospitals in terms of medical equipment.
In particular, Metinvest has equipped the hospital with oxygen concentrators, a ventilator, cardiac monitors, defibrillators, operating equipment and lighting, sterilizers, patient heating systems, and medical furniture worth more than UAH 7 million.
“This underground hospital is the best of the stabilization centers. It will allow us to provide medical care to more than 100 patients a day, saving hundreds of lives of our heroes. I hope that the number of such facilities will increase,” said Roman Kuzev, acting commander of the Medical Forces ‘East’.
