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Sparse trees hide the entrance. One descending timber tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. Inside lies a surgery unit, outfitted with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. And cabinets stocked of healthcare supplies, drugs and organized stacks of extra garments. In a break area with a washing machine and hot water heater, doctors monitor a screen. It shows the flight patterns of Russian surveillance UAVs as they weave in the sky above.

Medical personnel at an underground hospital look at a monitor showing enemy kamikaze and reconnaissance UAVs in the region.

Welcome to the nation's covert below-ground medical facility. The facility opened in August and is the second such installation, situated 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. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the ground. It’s the most secure way of delivering care to our injured military personnel. And it keeps healthcare workers safe,” said the facility's lead doctor, Maj the chief surgeon.

This medical station handles thirty to forty casualties a day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma necessitating amputations, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. Almost all are the casualties of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release grenades with lethal accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from first-person view drones. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an age of unmanned aircraft and a new type of war,” the surgeon explained.

Major the senior surgeon at the underground facility for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

On one day last week, a group of three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, twenty-eight-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had torn a minor wound in his leg. “War is terrible. My comrade beside me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He collapsed. Then the Russians released a another explosive on him.” He continued: “Everything in the settlement is demolished. There are drones all around and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured 43 days in a forest area close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their location was on foot. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and water. Seven days after he was hurt, he walked five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking 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 gave him new civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a pair of light-colored denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, stated a FPV drone caused a small hole in his leg.

A different casualty, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a drone blast had resulted in concussion. “I was in a dugout. It suddenly became black. I lost sensation any feeling or any sound,” he explained. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. My cousin has been killed. There are ongoing detonations.” A builder working in Lithuania, Filipchuk said he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to fight days before Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion in early 2022.

Another military member, a serviceman, had been struck in the upper body. He expressed pain as doctors placed him on a medical cot, removed a bloody bandage and treated his recent shrapnel wound. Covered in a thermal sheet, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A fragment of mortar struck me. The cause was a ricochet. I’m OK,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. This may require a few months. Subsequently, to return to my military group. Our forces must protect our country,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat Taras Mykolaichuk, who was injured in the back by a fragment of mortar.

Since 2022, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been killed in almost two thousand assaults. This subterranean hospital is built from four reinforced shelters, with timber beams, earth and granular material placed above reaching ground level. It can withstand direct hits from large-caliber artillery shells and even multiple eight-kilogram TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which financed the building, plans to erect 20 units in total. The head of the nation's security agency and ex- military leader, the official, said they would be “critically important for saving the lives of our armed forces and assisting troops on the frontline.” The organization referred to the project as the “most ambitious and challenging” it had undertaken since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

The surgeon, explained certain injured personnel had to endure delays hours or even days before they could be transported due to the threat of aerial attacks. “We had two critically ill casualties who arrived at 3am. I had to carry out a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for 20 years. One must concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the tunnel and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was stationed under a shrub. The patient and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for additional medical care. The underground medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, walked up to the entrance to greet the incoming patients. “We are open 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”