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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One sloping timber tunnel leads down to a brightly lit reception area. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a monitor displaying enemy suicide and surveillance drones in the area.

Welcome to the nation's secret below-ground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. It’s the most secure way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter few gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV explosion had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is demolished. There are drones all around and bodies. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit endured 43 days in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic assessed his vital signs. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV aerial device caused a small hole in his lower limb.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. There are ongoing explosions.” A builder working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery struck me. It was a ricochet. 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 must protect our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the back by a fragment of artillery shell.

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which funded the building, intends to erect 20 units in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained certain injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a bush. He and the two other military members were taken to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”