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Scrubby trees hide the entrance. One descending timber passageway leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves full of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean hospital look at a screen displaying enemy kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

Welcome to the nation's covert below-ground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the earth. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with lethal precision. “90% 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 war,” the doctor said.

Maj the senior surgeon at the underground installation for caring for wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

On one afternoon last week, three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad endured over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, said a first-person view aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, he said he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a stained dressing and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he said.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said some injured soldiers had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a shrub. He and the other soldiers were taken to the city of Dnipro 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. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”