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Scrubby trees hide the entryway. One descending wooden passageway descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Hospital personnel at an underground medical center look at a screen showing enemy suicide and reconnaissance drones in the area.

Welcome to the nation's covert below-ground medical facility. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the ground. This is the safest way of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal bullet injuries. It’s an era of drones and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground installation for treating wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

On one afternoon last week, three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone blast had torn a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. All supplies came by drone: rations and drinking water. A week after he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV aerial device ripped a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery struck me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. After that, to return to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he said.

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

Since 2022, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and sand placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, intends to build 20 facilities in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill casualties who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. 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 medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”