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Sparse trees conceal the entryway. A descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital observe a monitor displaying enemy suicide and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. It’s the safest method of providing help to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian FPV drones, which drop grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a new type of war,” the surgeon said.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground facility for caring for wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

On one day recently, three military members limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces dropped a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a FPV aerial device ripped a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A builder working in Lithuania, he noted he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Our forces must defend our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the building, plans to build 20 facilities in total. The head of the nation's national security council and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two severely injured casualties who arrived at 3am. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a shrub. He and the other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”