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Sparse trees hide the entryway. A sloping timber tunnel leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean hospital observe a screen displaying Russian suicide and surveillance drones in the area.

This is the nation's covert underground hospital. This center opened in August and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see minimal bullet injuries. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating injured troops in the eastern region.

During one day last week, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit endured over a month in a forest area near the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and water. A week following he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, he noted he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors placed him on a bed, took off a bloody dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he said.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand placed above reaching ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the construction, plans to build twenty units in total. The head of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the two 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 up to the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”