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Scrubby trees conceal the entryway. A sloping wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center observe a monitor showing Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground hospital. The facility began operations in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the ground. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the clinic’s surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating wounded troops in the eastern region.

On one day recently, a group of three military members limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is destroyed. There are drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his unit endured over a month in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their position was on foot. All supplies came by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a set of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a FPV aerial device ripped a minor injury in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, he said he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to fight shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as doctors placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the back by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted hospitals, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, 261 health workers have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, earth and granular material placed above reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to build twenty units in all. The head of the nation's security agency and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's invasion.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said certain wounded personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured patients who came at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “My career in healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a bush. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked toward the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”