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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean hospital observe a screen displaying enemy suicide and reconnaissance drones in the area.

This is the nation's secret underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the ground. This is the safest way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop grenades with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

Maj the senior surgeon at the underground installation for caring for wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one day recently, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces released a second explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his squad spent 43 days in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a nurse gave him new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of light-colored 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, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been lost. There are ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a bed, took off a bloody dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. After that, to go back to my military group. Someone must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the back by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even three 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which funded the building, intends to build twenty facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically essential for saving the lives of our military and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented since the enemy's military offensive.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain wounded personnel had to endure delays many hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “My career in medicine for 20 years. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported the soldier through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. He and the other military members were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”