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Sparse foliage conceal the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. Inside lies a surgery unit, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And shelves full of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an underground medical center look at a monitor displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the region.

Welcome to the nation's secret underground hospital. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which drop grenades with lethal precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for treating injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one afternoon recently, three military members limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a second grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to reach their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and water. A week after he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic checked his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a first-person view drone caused a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He groaned as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a several months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the back by a fragment of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above up to ground level. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to build 20 facilities in total. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and former defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill patients who came at 3am. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a bush. The patient and the two other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”