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Sparse foliage hide the entryway. One descending timber passageway leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the air above.

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

This is the nation's secret underground hospital. This center opened in August and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the ground. It’s the safest method of providing help to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which drop grenades with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see few gunshot wounds. It’s an age of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground installation for treating injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

On one afternoon recently, a group of three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces released a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier said his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to reach their position was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a trench shelter. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to remain alive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to fight shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a stained dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to international monitors, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand attacks. The underground facility is constructed from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top reaching the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the construction, intends to erect twenty units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's invasion.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said some wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of air assaults. “We had two severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe operations? “I’ve been medicine for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed under a shrub. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”