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Scrubby foliage conceal the entryway. One sloping timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center look at a monitor displaying Russian kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in August and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the city 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. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

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

During one afternoon last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “War is terrible. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad endured 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 get to their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and drinking water. A week following he was injured, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a FPV aerial device caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to erect 20 facilities in total. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured patients who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a shrub. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”