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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One sloping wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. It shows the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean medical center observe a monitor displaying Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the ground. This is the most secure way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which release grenades with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for caring for wounded soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one day recently, a group of three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his squad spent 43 days in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to reach their position was on foot. All supplies came by drone: food and water. A week after he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a FPV aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained dressing and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. After that, to return to my unit. Our forces must defend our country,” he said.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a fragment of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. Per international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the building, plans to build twenty units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken after Russia’s military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded soldiers had to endure delays 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 patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. The patient and the two other military members were transferred to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked up to the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”