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Sparse foliage hide the entryway. A descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a monitor displaying enemy kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the ground. It’s the most secure way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

On one afternoon recently, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. We see drones all around and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his squad endured over a month in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, said a first-person view aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone must protect our country,” he said.

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

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, plans to erect twenty units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for saving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented since the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said certain wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier up the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the two other military members were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”