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Scrubby trees hide the entryway. A descending wooden tunnel leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, physicians monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an underground hospital observe a screen displaying enemy suicide and reconnaissance drones in the area.

This is the nation's secret below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the earth. It’s the most secure way of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian FPV drones, which release grenades with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter few bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon explained.

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

During one day recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit spent 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: food and water. Seven days after he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV drone caused a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, he said he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a stained dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery struck me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our country,” he said.

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

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been killed in nearly two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and sand laid on top up to the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the building, plans to build twenty units in all. A senior official of the nation's national security council and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s invasion.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said some wounded soldiers had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a bush. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”