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Scrubby foliage conceal the entryway. One sloping timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a surgery unit, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital observe a screen showing enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for wounded troops in the eastern region.

On one day last week, three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured 43 days in a forest area near the city, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a FPV drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he said he had come back to Ukraine and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to ring his sister. “A fragment of artillery struck me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. After that, to go back to my military group. Someone must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the back by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to erect twenty units in total. The head of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally important for saving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, explained some injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the two other military members were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”