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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. A sloping timber passageway leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean medical center look at a screen displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters under the ground. This is the safest method of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor explained.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one day last week, three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured over a month in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and water. Seven days following he was injured, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a nurse gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

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

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces must defend our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the back by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top up to the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to build twenty units in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was parked beneath a shrub. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the city of a major city for further treatment. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, padded up to the entrance to await the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”