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Sparse trees hide the entrance. One sloping timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean medical center observe a screen showing Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground hospital. The facility opened in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the earth. This is the safest method of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop explosives with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded troops in the eastern region.

During one afternoon last week, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians released a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. We see drones all around and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad spent 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: food and water. A week following he was injured, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a nurse provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a FPV aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he said he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a bloody dressing and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost two thousand assaults. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends 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 “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after Russia’s invasion.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation 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 surgeries? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the other soldiers were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”