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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. One sloping wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus shelves full of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and kettle, physicians monitor a display. It shows the movements of enemy surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical staff at an underground hospital observe a monitor displaying Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground hospital. The facility began operations in August and is the second such installation, located 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 safest method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which drop explosives with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

During one day last week, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians dropped a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. There are UAVs all around and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad endured over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to get to their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and water. A week following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant gave him fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a first-person view drone caused a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, he noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a stained bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my unit. Someone has to protect our country,” he said.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the back by a fragment of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in nearly two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, plans to build 20 facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and former defence minister, the official, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded soldiers had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “We had two severely injured casualties who arrived at 3am. I had to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the other military members were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, Vasilevs, padded up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”