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Sparse trees hide the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an underground medical center observe a monitor showing Russian suicide and surveillance drones in the area.

This is the nation's covert underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. This is the most secure way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor said.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

On one afternoon recently, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier said his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a first-person view aerial device caused a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material laid on top up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build 20 facilities in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and former military leader, the official, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's invasion.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. I had to perform a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. The patient and the two other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”