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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One descending wooden passageway leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean medical center observe a screen displaying enemy suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters below the ground. This is the most secure way of providing help to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for treating injured troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon recently, three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had torn a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his unit spent over a month in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their position was by walking. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and water. A week after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, said a FPV drone ripped a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a stained dressing and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top up to the surface. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build twenty facilities in total. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, said certain injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His tourniquet had been on 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 said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked beneath a shrub. The patient and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”