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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets stocked of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a screen displaying Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

Welcome to the nation's secret underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the ground. This is the safest method of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal bullet injuries. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for treating wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. There are drones all around and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit spent over a month in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, said a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are ongoing detonations.” A builder working in Lithuania, he noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to erect twenty units in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our military and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, explained some injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with severe operations? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the two other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”