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Sparse trees conceal the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. In a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean medical center observe a screen displaying enemy suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to the nation's secret underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. This is the safest way of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries necessitating amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Maj the senior surgeon at the underground facility for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

On one day last week, three soldiers limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the Russians released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his squad endured over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, 28, said a first-person view aerial device caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, removed a stained dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his sister. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my military group. Our forces must protect our country,” he said.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in nearly two thousand assaults. The underground facility is constructed from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand placed above reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices released by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, plans to build 20 facilities in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's military offensive.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded soldiers had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”