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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And shelves full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean medical center observe a monitor showing Russian suicide and surveillance drones in the region.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground hospital. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the earth. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an age of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for treating wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit spent over a month in a forest area close to the city, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their position was by walking. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and water. A week following he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to remain alive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to fight shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Our forces must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the back by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the construction, plans to build twenty 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 survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained some injured soldiers had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured patients who came at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a shrub. He and the other soldiers were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”