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Sparse trees conceal the entryway. One sloping timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean hospital observe a screen showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres under the ground. It’s the most secure way of providing help to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 patients a day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for treating injured soldiers in the eastern region.

On one day last week, three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad spent 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their location was on foot. All supplies came by quadcopter: rations and water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, 28, stated a FPV aerial device ripped a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to build twenty facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's national security council and former military leader, the official, said they would be “critically important for preserving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company described the initiative as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's invasion.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the two other military members were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”