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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One sloping wooden passageway leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

Medical personnel at an underground medical center observe a screen showing Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. This center opened in August and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the earth. This is the most secure method of providing help to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

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

On one day recently, three soldiers limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his squad endured 43 days in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to get to their position was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

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

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his family member. “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. That will take a few months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the building, plans to erect twenty units in all. The head of the nation's national security council and former defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company described the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s invasion.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said certain wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, padded up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”