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Sparse trees hide the entryway. A descending wooden passageway leads down to a brightly lit reception area. There is a operating ward, outfitted with beds, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Medical personnel at an underground medical center look at a monitor displaying Russian kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret underground hospital. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the frontline and the city of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters under the earth. This is the safest method of providing help to our injured soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” said the facility's surgeon, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty casualties a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating limb trauma requiring amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our patients are from first-person view drones. We encounter few gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean facility for caring for wounded soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one day recently, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was killed,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier explained his unit endured over a month in a forest area near the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. Sole access to get to their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and water. A week following he was injured, he traveled 5km (about 3 miles), taking three hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medic assessed his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV drone caused a small hole in his lower limb.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he explained. “I think I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face ongoing detonations.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, took off a bloody dressing and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of mortar hit me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a several months. After that, to go back to my unit. Our forces must defend our nation,” he said.

Medical staff care for Taras Mykolaichuk, who was hit in the dorsal area by a fragment of artillery shell.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. According to human rights groups, over two hundred medical personnel have been killed in nearly 2,000 assaults. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and granular material laid on top up to the surface. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major industrial group, which funded the construction, intends to erect twenty facilities in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former military leader, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our military and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken after the enemy's military offensive.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

The surgeon, said some injured personnel had to wait hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the danger of air assaults. “We had two severely injured casualties who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been medicine for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he said.

Medical assistants transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked beneath a bush. The patient and the two other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's ginger cat, Vasilevs, walked up to the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates active around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”