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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. One descending wooden passageway leads down to a well-illuminated welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a screen displaying enemy kamikaze and surveillance drones in the region.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. The facility began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the earth. It’s the safest way of providing help to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of enemy FPV drones, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the doctor said.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for injured soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, three soldiers limped into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are drones all around and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad spent 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: food and drinking water. A week after he was injured, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel any feeling or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had returned to Ukraine and enlisted to fight shortly before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, took off a bloody dressing and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. It was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a few months. After that, to go back to my military group. Our forces must protect our country,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. According to international monitors, 261 health workers have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material placed above reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build twenty facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally essential for saving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented after Russia’s military offensive.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some wounded soldiers 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 casualties who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other soldiers were taken to the city of a major city for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked up to the entrance to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”