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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. One sloping timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital look at a monitor showing enemy kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

This is the nation's covert underground medical facility. The facility opened in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the earth. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma necessitating amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see minimal bullet injuries. It’s an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for injured troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon recently, three military members limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to reach their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant gave him new civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, 28, said a first-person view drone caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a bed, took off a stained dressing and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Our forces must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material laid on top up to the surface. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the building, intends to erect 20 facilities in total. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “We had two severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the entrance to await the next arrivals. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”