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Sparse trees conceal the entrance. One descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean medical center observe a monitor displaying Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the area.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. This is the most secure way of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma necessitating amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for treating wounded troops in the eastern region.

On one afternoon last week, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their location was on foot. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a nurse provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, stated a first-person view aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. There are ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to fight shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a stained bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. After that, to go back to my military group. Someone has to defend our country,” he said.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the building, plans to erect twenty units in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said some injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in medicine for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground hospital staff took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”