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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. A sloping timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean hospital look at a monitor displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the region.

This is the nation's covert below-ground hospital. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the ground. This is the most secure method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop explosives with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a new type of conflict,” the surgeon said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

On one day last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is destroyed. We see drones all around and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his squad endured over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: food and water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic assessed his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

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

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, he noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces must defend our nation,” he said.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg explosive devices dropped by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to build 20 facilities in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for saving the survival of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's invasion.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “My career in medicine for two decades. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. He and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”