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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. A descending wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean hospital look at a monitor showing enemy suicide and surveillance UAVs in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. It’s the most secure way of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV drones, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground installation for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

During one afternoon last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his squad endured 43 days in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and water. A week following he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

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

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing detonations.” A builder working in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. After that, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to build 20 units in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, said some wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was parked beneath a bush. The patient and the two other military members were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”