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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. A descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an underground medical center look at a monitor displaying Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground hospital. The facility opened in August 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. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the earth. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which drop grenades with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, three military members limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured over a month in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, he noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a stained dressing and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand assaults. The underground facility is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to build twenty facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's security agency and former military leader, the official, said they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's invasion.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a shrub. He and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”