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Scrubby trees hide the entryway. One descending wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital look at a screen showing Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is the nation's covert below-ground hospital. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the ground. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

During one day recently, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his squad endured 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to get to their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, 28, stated a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the back. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A fragment of artillery hit 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 several months. After that, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and sand placed above up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, intends to build 20 facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally essential for saving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken after Russia’s military offensive.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain wounded soldiers had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. You have to focus,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. He and the other military members were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”