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Sparse trees hide the entryway. One descending timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital observe a monitor showing enemy kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

This is the nation's secret below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the ground. It’s the most secure method of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with lethal accuracy. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few gunshot wounds. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

On one day last week, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad endured over a month in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their location was on foot. All supplies came by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days after he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Someone must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been killed in nearly two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to build 20 units in total. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for saving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s invasion.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said certain wounded soldiers had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “We had two severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a bush. The patient and the other military members were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, padded toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”