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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. A descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center look at a screen displaying Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres under the earth. This is the safest method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the Russians released a another grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone near Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and drinking water. A week following he was injured, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medical staff assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse provided him with new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face continuous detonations.” A construction worker working in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors placed him on a bed, removed a stained bandage and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. That will take a few months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone must protect our nation,” he said.

Medical staff treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in almost two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from 152mm artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices released by aerial means.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the building, plans to erect 20 facilities in total. A senior official of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally essential for saving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s invasion.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated due to the threat of air assaults. “Our facility received two severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. I had to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier up the tunnel and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a bush. The patient and the other military members were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground hospital staff took a break. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, walked up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”