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Sparse trees hide the entryway. A descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Medical personnel at an underground medical center look at a screen displaying enemy suicide and surveillance drones in the area.

This is the nation's covert below-ground hospital. This center opened in August and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres below the ground. This is the safest method of providing help to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the casualties of enemy FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see few bullet injuries. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for caring for wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, a group of three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his squad spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a first-person view drone ripped a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A builder employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone must protect our country,” he said.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. According to international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, plans to erect twenty facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented after Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said certain injured soldiers had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. I had to carry out a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed under a shrub. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, Vasilevs, padded toward the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”