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Scrubby foliage hide the entrance. A sloping timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

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

Welcome to the nation's covert underground hospital. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the ground. This is the most secure method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty patients a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor said.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for treating wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one day last week, three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are UAVs everywhere and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his squad endured 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and water. A week after he was hurt, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a first-person view drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a stained bandage and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his sister. “A fragment of artillery struck me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. After that, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he said.

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

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to build 20 facilities in total. A senior official of the nation's national security council and former defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for saving the lives of our military and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said some wounded soldiers had to wait many hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a bush. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”