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Scrubby trees hide the entryway. A descending timber tunnel descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean medical center look at a screen showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground medical facility. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. This is the most secure method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a day. Their conditions vary. Some have catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which release grenades with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon said.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

On one afternoon recently, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs everywhere and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit endured over a month in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to get to their position was by walking. All supplies came by drone: food and water. A week after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV aerial device ripped a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his sister. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone has to defend our nation,” he said.

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

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per international monitors, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to the surface. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm projectiles and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which funded the construction, intends to erect twenty facilities in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s military offensive.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said certain wounded soldiers had to wait hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who came at the early hours. I had to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Orderlies wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground hospital staff paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, padded toward the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”