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Scrubby foliage conceal the entryway. One descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical staff at an underground medical center observe a screen showing enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the area.

This is the nation's covert underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters under the earth. This is the safest way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see few bullet injuries. It’s an era of drones and a new type of conflict,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day recently, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones all around and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his squad spent 43 days in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to get to their position was by walking. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

The soldier, 28, stated a first-person view drone caused a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a few months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff care for the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to erect 20 facilities in total. A senior official of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who came at 3am. I had to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. He and the two other military members were taken to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”