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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. One descending wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Hospital personnel at an underground hospital observe a screen showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

Welcome to the nation's covert below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. This is the most secure way of providing help to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter few gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

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

During one afternoon recently, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had torn a minor wound in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad spent 43 days in a forest area near the city, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

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

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been lost. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to erect twenty units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken after the enemy's invasion.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in medicine for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a bush. The patient and the two other military members were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, padded up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”