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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital look at a screen showing enemy suicide and reconnaissance drones in the region.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground hospital. This center opened in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” said the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with lethal accuracy. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a new type of conflict,” the doctor said.

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

On one afternoon last week, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit spent over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to get to their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: food and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

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

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. There are ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he said.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material placed above up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to erect 20 facilities in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, explained certain injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of air assaults. “We had two severely injured casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. The patient and the other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”