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Scrubby trees hide the entryway. A descending timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground medical center observe a monitor displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres under the earth. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop explosives with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We see minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for treating injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had torn a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his unit endured 43 days in a forest area near the city, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. All supplies came by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, said a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he explained. “I believe 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 his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and sand placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the construction, plans to erect 20 units in total. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded personnel had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked under a shrub. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”