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Sparse foliage hide the entryway. One descending wooden passageway descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean hospital observe a screen showing enemy suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is the nation's covert underground hospital. The facility began operations in August and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters under the earth. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic limb trauma necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for treating wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon recently, three military members limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his limb. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit endured 43 days in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: food and drinking water. A week after he was injured, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a FPV aerial device ripped a minor injury in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. A relative has been killed. There are ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he said he had come back to Ukraine and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a stained bandage and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone has to protect our country,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the back by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in nearly two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the construction, plans to erect twenty units in total. The head of the nation's security agency and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's invasion.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, said certain wounded soldiers had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured patients who arrived at the early hours. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “My career in medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the two other military members were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”