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Sparse foliage hide the entryway. One descending wooden tunnel leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a screen. It shows the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground hospital look at a monitor displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the earth. This is the most secure way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which drop grenades with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

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

During one afternoon last week, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces released a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days after he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view aerial device caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and enlisted 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 expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a few months. After that, to return to my unit. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he said.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build 20 units in all. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, said certain injured personnel had to endure delays many hours or even days before they could be transported because of the danger of air assaults. “We had two severely injured patients who came at 3am. I had to perform a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in medicine for 20 years. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. He and the other soldiers were taken to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”