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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One sloping timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

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

This is Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres below the earth. This is the most secure way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for wounded soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent over a month in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, 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 quadcopter: rations and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, stated a first-person view drone caused a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. There are ongoing explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he said he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Someone has to protect our country,” he said.

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

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the building, plans to erect twenty facilities in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the initiative as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s invasion.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill casualties who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to await the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”