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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One sloping timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an underground medical center observe a screen displaying Russian suicide and surveillance drones in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the earth. This is the safest method of providing help to our injured soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats 30-40 casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release explosives with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one day recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “War is terrible. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad endured 43 days in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to reach their location was on foot. Necessary provisions came by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

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

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been lost. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to fight shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors placed him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he said.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was injured in the back by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and sand placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to erect twenty units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, said certain wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the threat of air assaults. “We had two critically ill patients who arrived at 3am. I had to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other military members were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked up to the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”