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Sparse trees hide the entrance. A descending timber passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of medical equipment, medications and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a display. The screen reveals the movements of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital observe a monitor showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

Welcome to Ukraine’s secret below-ground medical facility. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine close to the frontline and the city of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the earth. This is the safest method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. It also ensures medical personnel safe,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles thirty to forty patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating amputations, or severe stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of enemy first-person view (FPV) drones, which release grenades with deadly precision. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We encounter minimal gunshot wounds. It’s an era of drones and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

Maj the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for treating injured troops in the eastern region.

During one day last week, a group of three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had torn a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is terrible. My comrade beside me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians dropped a another grenade on him.” He continued: “All structures in the village is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier said his unit spent 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. Sole access to reach their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: food and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a first-person view drone caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had left him with a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel anything or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a bed, removed a bloody dressing and treated his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his sister. “A piece of artillery struck me. It was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a few months. After that, to go back to my unit. Someone has to defend our nation,” he said.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Since 2022, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand laid on top up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the building, intends to build 20 facilities in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “vitally important for saving the lives of our armed forces and assisting troops on the battlefront.” The organization described the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said certain injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured casualties who came at 3am. I had to carry out a double amputation on a patient. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the other military members were transferred to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the doorway to greet the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “The work is continuous.”