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Sparse trees conceal the entrance. One descending wooden tunnel leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves full of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians monitor a screen. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital staff at an underground medical center observe a screen displaying Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the earth. This is the most secure method of providing help to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day recently, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to reach their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

The soldier, 28, said a FPV drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. A relative has been lost. There are ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, he noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is constructed from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the building, intends to build 20 units in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two severely injured patients who came at 3am. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”