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Scrubby trees conceal the entryway. A descending wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean hospital look at a monitor showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres below the earth. This is the most secure way of providing help to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which drop explosives with lethal precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is terrible. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs all around and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad endured 43 days in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by drone: food and water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a first-person view aerial device ripped a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are ongoing explosions.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a bed, took off a stained bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our country,” he said.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the back by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel 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 ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to build twenty facilities in total. The head of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential 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 implemented since Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained certain injured personnel had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. He and the other military members were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”