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Scrubby foliage hide the entrance. A sloping wooden tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. It shows the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center observe a monitor showing enemy suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the earth. This is the safest method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian FPV drones, which release grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. It’s an era of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded troops in the eastern region.

During one day last week, a group of three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and water. Seven days after he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a nurse gave him new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he said.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a fragment of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top up to the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to build 20 units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company described the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken after Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded personnel had to wait hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two critically ill patients who came at the early hours. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. He and the other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”