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Sparse foliage hide the entryway. One descending timber tunnel leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean medical center look at a screen displaying Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

Welcome to the nation's secret underground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres below the earth. This is the safest method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” stated the facility's surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground facility for caring for wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day recently, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see drones all around and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, said a first-person view drone caused a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the back by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and sand laid on top up to the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, intends to build 20 units in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain wounded soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even days before they could be transported because of the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of critically ill patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was parked beneath a shrub. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”