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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. A descending timber passageway leads down to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Medical staff at an underground medical center observe a monitor showing Russian suicide and reconnaissance drones in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second of its kind, located in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. It’s the safest method of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which drop grenades with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

On one afternoon last week, three military members limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. We see UAVs everywhere and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier said his unit spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their position was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: rations and water. A week after he was injured, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff assessed his physical condition. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, said a first-person view drone caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. There are continuous detonations.” A builder working in Lithuania, he said he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a stained bandage and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery struck me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he said.

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

Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly two thousand assaults. The underground facility is constructed from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, plans to build 20 facilities in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically essential for saving the lives of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “We had two critically ill casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must concentrate,” he said.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a bush. He and the other soldiers were taken to the city of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team took a break. The facility's ginger cat, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “We are open around the clock,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”