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Scrubby foliage hide the entryway. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground medical center look at a screen displaying Russian suicide and reconnaissance drones in the area.

Welcome to the nation's secret underground hospital. The facility began operations in August and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres under the earth. This is the safest method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma necessitating amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which drop grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a new type of war,” the surgeon said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for treating wounded troops in the eastern region.

On one day recently, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV explosion had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is demolished. We see drones all around and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad endured over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: rations and water. A week following he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to serve shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his sister. “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. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost two thousand assaults. The underground facility is built from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and sand placed above reaching the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by drone.

A major industrial group, which funded the building, plans to build 20 facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former military leader, the official, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, explained certain wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of air assaults. “We had two critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. I had to perform a double amputation on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the two other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded toward the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”