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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. One descending timber passageway leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And shelves full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a screen. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground hospital look at a monitor displaying Russian suicide and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground 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 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 safest way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground installation for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

On one afternoon last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a forest area near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a first-person view drone caused a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. After that, to go back to my military group. Our forces has to defend our country,” he said.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to erect twenty facilities in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “vitally essential for preserving the lives of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in medicine for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. He and the two other military members were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, padded up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”