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Sparse trees conceal the entryway. A descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus shelves stocked of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. In a staff room with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. The screen reveals the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they zigzag in the air above.

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

This is Ukraine’s covert below-ground medical facility. This center began operations in August and is the second such installation, located in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the urban area of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres under the earth. This is the most secure way of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Maj the chief surgeon.

The stabilisation point treats thirty to forty patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Others can walk. The vast majority are the casualties of enemy FPV drones, which release grenades with lethal precision. “90% of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see few bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean facility for treating wounded soldiers in eastern Ukraine.

During one day last week, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, said an first-person view drone explosion had torn a minor wound in his leg. “War is terrible. The guy next to me, a fellow soldier, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Subsequently the enemy forces released a another explosive on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. There are drones all around and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent 43 days in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to get to their location was on foot. All supplies arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. A week after he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. After treatment, a medical attendant gave him new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of pale jeans.

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

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A builder employed in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to Ukraine and volunteered to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in early 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a medical cot, took off a stained dressing and cleaned his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his sister. “A fragment of mortar hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a several months. Subsequently, to go back to my unit. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked medical centers, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. Per human rights groups, over two hundred health workers have been killed in almost 2,000 attacks. The underground facility is built from four reinforced shelters, 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 eight-kilogram explosive devices released by drone.

A major industrial group, which financed the construction, intends to erect 20 units in all. The head of Ukraine’s national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “vitally essential for saving the survival of our armed forces and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

An example of the facility's surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained some injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even multiple days before they could be transported because of the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two severely injured casualties who arrived at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “My career in medicine for 20 years. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. The patient and the two other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The underground hospital staff took a break. The hospital’s ginger cat, the mascot, padded toward the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “The work is continuous.”