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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One sloping wooden tunnel descends to a well-illuminated welcome zone. There is a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and breathing machines. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and neat piles of spare clothes. In a break area with a washing machine and kettle, doctors monitor a display. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

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

Welcome to the nation's covert underground medical facility. This center opened in August and is the second such installation, located in eastern Ukraine not far from the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the earth. This is the safest way of providing help to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” stated the clinic’s lead doctor, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station handles thirty to forty patients a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma requiring amputations, or severe abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly accuracy. “90% of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon explained.

Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground facility for caring for wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one afternoon last week, a group of three soldiers limped into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, reported an first-person view drone blast had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the Russians dropped a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Ours and theirs.”

The soldier explained his squad spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to get to their location was by walking. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: food and drinking water. A week following he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medical staff checked his physical condition. Following care, a medical attendant provided him with fresh non-military attire: a shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

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

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, said a UAV explosion had left him with concussion. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been lost. There are continuous detonations.” A builder employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to Ukraine and volunteered to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors laid him on a medical cot, removed a bloody dressing and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces must protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was hit in the dorsal area by a piece of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly attacked hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, earth and granular material placed above up to the surface. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to build 20 units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our armed forces and supporting troops on the battlefront.” The organization referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said certain injured personnel had to wait hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill patients who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. His bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with traumatic surgeries? “My career in medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he said.

Orderlies transported Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the other military members were transferred to the city of a major city for further treatment. The underground hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, padded toward the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”