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Sparse foliage conceal the entryway. One sloping wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they weave in the air above.

Medical staff at an subterranean medical center look at a monitor displaying Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the region.

Welcome to the nation's covert underground medical facility. The facility began operations in August and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the ground. It’s the most secure way of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” stated the facility's surgeon, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the surgeon said.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating wounded troops in the eastern region.

During one afternoon last week, a group of three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. There are UAVs all around and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad endured over a month in a forest area near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to reach their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), taking several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. There are ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and cleaned his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to go back to my unit. Someone must protect our country,” he said.

Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. According to international monitors, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple steel bunkers, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above reaching ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to build 20 units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, the official, declared they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured soldiers had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “We had two severely injured casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a removal of both limbs on one of them. His tourniquet had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “My career in healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was parked beneath a bush. The patient and the other military members were taken to the urban center of a major city for additional medical care. The underground hospital staff took a break. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, padded toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are active around the clock,” Holovashchenko said. “The work is continuous.”