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Scrubby trees hide the entrance. One sloping timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground hospital look at a screen displaying Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

This is the nation's covert below-ground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the ground. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with lethal precision. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for treating wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

On one day last week, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “War is terrible. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their location was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a FPV drone caused a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. After that, to go back to my military group. Someone must protect our country,” he affirmed.

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

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in nearly 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former defence minister, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, said certain injured soldiers had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed under a shrub. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground hospital staff took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”