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Scrubby foliage conceal the entryway. One descending wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus shelves full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean hospital observe a screen showing Russian suicide and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

This is the nation's secret underground medical facility. The facility began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. It’s the most secure way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from FPVs. We see few bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

On one day recently, three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces released a second explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones all around and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. The only way to get to their location was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and water. A week after he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, said a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. There are ongoing detonations.” A builder working in a neighboring country, he said he had come back to Ukraine and enlisted to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Someone has to defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and sand laid on top reaching the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 units in all. A senior official of Ukraine’s national security council and former military leader, the official, said they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported because of the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured patients who came at 3am. 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 operations? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a shrub. He and the other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked up to the doorway to await the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “It doesn’t stop.”