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Sparse trees conceal the entrance. One descending timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a screen displaying Russian suicide and surveillance drones in the region.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month 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 the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres under the ground. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which drop grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the surgeon said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

On one afternoon recently, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones all around and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to reach their position was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. Seven days following he was injured, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

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

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous detonations.” A builder employed in Lithuania, he noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed 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 affirmed.

Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to build twenty facilities in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill patients who came at 3am. I had to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a bush. The patient and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”