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Sparse trees conceal the entryway. One descending timber passageway leads down to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean hospital look at a screen displaying enemy suicide and surveillance drones in the region.

This is the nation's secret below-ground hospital. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. This is the most secure way of providing help to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which drop explosives with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few bullet injuries. This is an era of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for treating wounded soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to reach their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days following he was injured, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, 28, said a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our country,” he said.

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

Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, plans to build twenty facilities in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured casualties who arrived at 3am. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. He and the other military members were taken to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”