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Scrubby foliage conceal the entryway. One descending wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Medical staff at an underground hospital look at a screen showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground hospital. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the ground. This is the safest method of providing help to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see minimal bullet injuries. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor explained.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

On one day last week, three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Then the Russians dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to get to their location was by walking. All supplies arrived by drone: food and water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, stated a FPV drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, he noted he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery struck me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces has to protect our country,” he affirmed.

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

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and sand placed above up to ground level. It can withstand impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even three 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to build 20 facilities in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. One must focus,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a bush. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”