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Sparse foliage hide the entrance. A sloping wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. The screen reveals the movements of enemy spy drones as they zigzag in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an subterranean medical center look at a screen displaying Russian suicide and surveillance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to the nation's covert below-ground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, located in the eastern part of the country not far from the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “We are 6 metres below the earth. It’s the safest way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. And it keeps healthcare workers protected,” said the clinic’s lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats 30-40 casualties a each day. Cases differ widely. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of enemy FPV aerial devices, which drop grenades with lethal accuracy. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We encounter few gunshot wounds. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a new type of conflict,” the doctor explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground facility for caring for wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

On one afternoon last week, three soldiers limped into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “War is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the settlement is demolished. There are drones all around and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured 43 days in a wooded zone near the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to get to their location was on foot. All supplies came by quadcopter: food and water. A week after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his vital signs. Following care, a nurse provided him with new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored jeans.

The soldier, twenty-eight, said a first-person view aerial device caused a minor injury in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, said a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I couldn’t feel any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker employed in a neighboring country, he said he had returned to his homeland and enlisted to serve days before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors placed him on a bed, removed a bloody dressing and treated his two-day-old shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to ring his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he told her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Medical staff treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Over the past years, enemy forces has consistently attacked hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in almost two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and granular material laid on top up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from 152mm projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the building, intends to erect 20 units in all. The head of Ukraine’s security agency and ex- military leader, the official, declared they would be “critically important for preserving the lives of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The organization described the initiative as the “largest-scale and challenging” it had undertaken since the enemy's military offensive.

An example of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to wait many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured patients who arrived at 3am. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on one of them. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for so long there was no other option.” What is his method with severe operations? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Medical assistants wheeled the soldier through the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed beneath a bush. The patient and the two other soldiers were transferred to the urban center of a major city for further treatment. The underground medical team took a break. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, walked up to the doorway to greet the next arrivals. “We are open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko stated. “It doesn’t stop.”