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Scrubby trees hide the entryway. One sloping wooden passageway leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of extra garments. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a monitor displaying Russian suicide and surveillance drones in the region.

This is the nation's secret underground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters under the ground. This is the safest method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of enemy FPV drones, which drop explosives with lethal 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 war,” the surgeon explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for treating wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

On one afternoon last week, three soldiers limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is destroyed. There are UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: food and water. A week following he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a FPV aerial device ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Someone must protect our nation,” he said.

Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, plans to erect 20 facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained some injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a bush. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, padded up to the entrance to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”