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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. A descending timber tunnel leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean medical center observe a monitor displaying Russian suicide and surveillance drones in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the ground. It’s the most secure method of providing help to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter few bullet injuries. It’s an age of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for caring for injured troops in eastern Ukraine.

On one afternoon recently, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians dropped a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad endured 43 days in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to reach their position was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: rations and drinking water. A week following he was injured, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, 28, stated a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces has to protect our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material placed above up to the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, plans to build twenty facilities in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and former defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two severely injured patients who came at 3am. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to await the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”