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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One sloping timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a screen. It shows the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center observe a monitor displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters below the earth. This is the safest method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with lethal precision. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

On one day recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to reach their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

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

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, removed a stained bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he said.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, intends to erect 20 units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of critically ill patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “My career in healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a shrub. The patient and the two other military members were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”