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Scrubby trees hide the entrance. One descending wooden passageway leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. There is a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a monitor displaying Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to the nation's secret below-ground hospital. The facility opened 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 city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the ground. It’s the safest way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” said the clinic’s surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which drop grenades with lethal precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We see minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground installation for caring for wounded soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

On one day last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV blast had ripped a minor wound in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones all around and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi explained his squad spent 43 days in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. Sole access to get to their position was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. A week after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. Upon arrival, a medic assessed his vital signs. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view aerial device ripped a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. We face ongoing explosions.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his sister. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It 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 country,” he said.

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

Since 2022, Russia has consistently attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. According to international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and granular material placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg explosive devices released by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, plans to erect twenty facilities in all. A senior official of the nation's security agency and former defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our military and supporting troops on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who came at 3am. It was necessary to carry out a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Orderlies wheeled Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. He and the other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”