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Scrubby trees hide the entryway. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

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

Welcome to the nation's secret below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the ground. It’s the safest method of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which drop explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for caring for wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

On one day recently, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “War is terrible. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones everywhere and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been lost. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had come back to Ukraine and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a stained bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he said.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a fragment of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to build twenty facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken after the enemy's invasion.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained some wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, padded toward the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”