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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One sloping timber passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center observe a screen displaying enemy suicide and surveillance drones in the area.

This is the nation's secret underground medical facility. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV drones, which drop grenades with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon explained.

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

During one afternoon recently, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, said a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors placed him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone must defend our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff care for the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to build 20 units in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and former defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken since Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”