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Sparse trees hide the entryway. A sloping timber tunnel leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean hospital observe a monitor displaying Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres under the ground. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma requiring amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for caring for injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians dropped a another grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. There are drones all around and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days after he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV drone caused a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody dressing and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of artillery struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the back by a fragment of mortar.

Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and sand laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, plans to build 20 facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had two severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. I had to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “My career in medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”