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Scrubby trees conceal the entrance. A descending wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. There is a operating ward, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and ventilators. And shelves full of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of spare clothes. Within a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean medical center observe a screen displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance drones in the area.

This is Ukraine’s secret below-ground hospital. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “We are six meters below the earth. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. It also ensures healthcare workers protected,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point handles 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from devastating leg injuries requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. It’s an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the doctor said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for treating injured troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one day last week, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he said. “He fell down. Then the Russians dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is demolished. There are UAVs all around and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

The soldier said his unit endured 43 days in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to reach their position was by walking. Necessary provisions came by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to where an military transport was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

The soldier, 28, stated a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk said he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been hit in the upper body. He groaned as medical staff laid him on a bed, took off a bloody dressing and cleaned his recent injury from fragments. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Someone has to defend our country,” he said.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the back by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has repeatedly targeted hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from multiple reinforced shelters, with wooden supports, soil and sand placed above up to ground level. It can withstand impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to build 20 facilities in all. The head of the nation's security agency and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the survival of our military and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented after the enemy's invasion.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

Holovashchenko, explained certain injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the threat of aerial attacks. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with traumatic operations? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are open around the clock,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”