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Sparse trees hide the entrance. A sloping timber passageway descends to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, physicians keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital look at a monitor showing Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground hospital. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the earth. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV drones, which drop 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 drones and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day recently, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his limb. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is demolished. There are drones all around and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to reach their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by drone: food and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set 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 concussion. “My position was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I couldn’t feel anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been lost. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, removed a bloody dressing and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery struck me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To get better. That will take a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in nearly two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even three 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the building, plans to erect 20 units in total. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “critically important for preserving the lives of our military and supporting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said some wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated due to the danger of air assaults. “We had two critically ill patients who came at 3am. I had to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His tourniquet had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. He and the two other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “Our facility operates active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”