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Sparse trees hide the entryway. A descending timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean hospital observe a screen displaying enemy suicide and surveillance UAVs in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret underground medical facility. The facility began operations in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres under the earth. It’s the most secure method of providing help to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop grenades with lethal precision. “90% of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter few bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, three soldiers limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had torn a minor wound in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad endured over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their location was on foot. All supplies came by drone: food and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

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

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with concussion. “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 survive. My cousin has been lost. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, took off a stained dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A fragment of mortar hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Our forces must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Since 2022, enemy forces has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, soil and granular material laid on top reaching the surface. It is designed to resist direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, plans to build 20 units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and former military leader, the official, said they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The company described the initiative as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's invasion.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic operations? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”