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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One sloping wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean hospital look at a screen displaying enemy suicide and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

This is the nation's secret below-ground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters under the earth. This is the most secure way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

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

On one afternoon recently, a group of three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad endured over a month in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: food and water. Seven days after he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder working in Lithuania, he said he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to build twenty units in total. A senior official of the nation's national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company described the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain injured soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a shrub. He and the other soldiers were taken to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”