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Sparse foliage conceal the entrance. A descending wooden passageway leads down to a brightly lit welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an underground medical center observe a screen showing enemy kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the earth. This is the safest way of providing help to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. This is an age of drones and a new type of war,” the doctor explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for wounded troops in the eastern region.

During one day recently, a group of three military members limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit spent over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their position was by walking. All supplies came by drone: food and drinking water. Seven days following he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse provided him with fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous detonations.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our country,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the back by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand assaults. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to build twenty facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our military and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded soldiers had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of critically ill patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a shrub. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, padded toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”