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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One descending timber passageway leads down to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus shelves stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and kettle, doctors monitor a display. The screen reveals the flight patterns of enemy spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center look at a monitor displaying enemy suicide and surveillance drones in the region.

This is Ukraine’s covert underground medical facility. This center began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are six meters under the earth. It’s the safest way of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty patients a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly precision. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

On one day recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, reported an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a another explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. There are drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and the enemy's.”

The soldier explained his squad endured over a month in a forest area near the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. Necessary provisions came by drone: food and water. Seven days after he was injured, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his vital signs. After treatment, a nurse gave him fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a first-person view drone ripped a small hole in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been lost. There are ongoing explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, he noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a few months. After that, to return to my unit. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he said.

Medical staff care for the wounded soldier, who was hit in the back by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber projectiles and even three eight-kilogram TNT charges dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to build 20 facilities in all. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had implemented after Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained certain wounded personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the danger of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. He and the other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”