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Scrubby foliage hide the entryway. One sloping timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an underground hospital look at a monitor showing Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground hospital. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the earth. This is the safest way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter few bullet injuries. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon said.

Maj the senior surgeon at the underground facility for treating wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

On one day recently, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his squad endured 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and water. A week after he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

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

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained dressing and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to return to my unit. Someone has to defend our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to build 20 facilities in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained some injured soldiers had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who came at the early hours. I had to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was parked beneath a shrub. The patient and the other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”