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Scrubby trees conceal the entryway. A descending wooden passageway leads down to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with gurneys, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And cabinets full of healthcare supplies, medications and organized stacks of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, doctors monitor a display. It shows the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital look at a screen displaying enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the area.

This is the nation's secret below-ground hospital. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second such installation, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits six meters below the earth. It’s the most secure method of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps medical personnel safe,” stated the facility's surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats thirty to forty casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic leg injuries requiring amputations, or serious abdominal injuries. Some patients can move on their own. Almost all are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which drop grenades with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal gunshot wounds. This is an era of drones and a different kind of conflict,” the surgeon said.

Major the senior surgeon at the subterranean installation for caring for injured soldiers in the eastern region.

During one day recently, a group of three military members walked with difficulty into the facility. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a small hole in his leg. “Conflict is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a second explosive on him.” He continued: “All structures in the settlement is destroyed. We see drones everywhere and casualties. Ours and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit endured 43 days in a forest area near the city, which Russia has been attempting to capture since last year. The only way to reach their position was on foot. All supplies came by drone: rations and water. A week after he was hurt, he traveled 5km (roughly three miles), taking several hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his vital signs. Following care, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a FPV drone caused a minor injury in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a trench shelter. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation anything or any sound,” he said. “I think I was lucky to survive. A relative has been killed. We face continuous explosions.” A construction worker working in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve shortly before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as medical staff placed him on a bed, removed a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Wrapped in a foil blanket, he borrowed a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of artillery hit me. It was a ricochet. 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 military group. Our forces has to defend our nation,” he said.

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

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and ambulances. 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, soil and granular material placed above reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian industrial group, which financed the construction, plans to build 20 facilities in total. A senior official of the nation's national security council and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the lives of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The organization referred to the project as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had undertaken since Russia’s invasion.

One of the centre’s operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, explained some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be transported due to the danger of air assaults. “Our facility received a pair of severely injured patients who came at the early hours. I had to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been applied for so long there was no alternative.” What is his method with traumatic surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. One must focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk through the passage and into an ambulance. The transport was parked under a bush. He and the other military members were taken to the city of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff paused for rest. The hospital’s orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “We are open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”