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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. One descending timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean medical center observe a screen showing enemy kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the earth. It’s the safest way of providing help to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats 30-40 casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

On one day last week, a group of three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his unit spent 43 days in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to reach their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse gave him fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a bloody dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he said.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the building, plans to erect twenty units in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said some wounded personnel had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe surgeries? “My career in medicine for two decades. One must concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was stationed under a bush. The patient and the other military members were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, padded toward the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “We are active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”