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Sparse trees hide the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean medical center look at a monitor showing enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the region.

This is Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the earth. It’s the safest method of providing help to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor explained.

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

During one day last week, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier said his unit spent over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their location was by walking. All supplies came by drone: rations and water. Seven days following he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

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

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he said he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a bed, took off a stained bandage and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and sand placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, plans to erect twenty units in total. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our military and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after Russia’s military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained certain injured soldiers had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. I had to perform a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “My career in medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other military members were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, padded toward the entrance to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”