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Scrubby foliage hide the entryway. One sloping wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And shelves full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the sky above.

Hospital staff at an subterranean medical center look at a monitor displaying enemy suicide and reconnaissance UAVs in the area.

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters under the earth. This is the safest method of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV drones, which drop explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for treating injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day recently, three military members limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone blast had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are UAVs everywhere and bodies. Our side's and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his unit endured 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. A week after he was injured, he walked 5km (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV aerial device ripped a minor injury in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been lost. We face continuous explosions.” A builder working in Lithuania, he noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a bloody dressing and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my unit. Someone must protect our nation,” he said.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a piece of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to erect 20 units in total. A senior official of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our military and supporting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after Russia’s invasion.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of critically ill casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “My career in medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. The patient and the two other soldiers were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”