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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. A descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital look at a monitor showing enemy suicide and reconnaissance drones in the region.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the earth. It’s the safest way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop grenades with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor said.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one afternoon recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is destroyed. There are drones all around and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his unit endured over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a FPV drone ripped a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A builder employed in Lithuania, he said he had come back to Ukraine and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery struck me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. After that, to go back to my unit. Someone must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand placed above up to ground level. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to build twenty units in all. The head of the nation's national security council and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company described the initiative as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who came at 3am. I had to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in medicine for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”