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Sparse trees hide the entryway. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground medical center observe a monitor showing Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters below the earth. It’s the safest method of providing help to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Others can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter few bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, a group of three soldiers limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are drones all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad endured 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their position was by walking. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and water. A week following he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, 28, stated a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces has to defend our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg explosive devices released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to build 20 units in total. A senior official of the nation's national security council and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, said certain injured soldiers had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “We had two critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied 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 transported Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a shrub. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, padded up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”