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Scrubby foliage hide the entrance. One descending wooden passageway descends to a brightly lit reception area. There is a surgery unit, equipped with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. Plus cabinets full of medical equipment, drugs and organized stacks of spare clothes. Within a staff room with a laundry appliance and kettle, physicians monitor a screen. It shows the movements of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an subterranean medical center look at a screen showing enemy suicide and surveillance UAVs in the region.

This is the nation's covert underground medical facility. The facility opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the frontline and the city of Pokrovsk in Donetsk oblast. “Our facility sits six meters under the ground. It’s the safest method of delivering care to our injured soldiers. It also ensures healthcare workers safe,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major the chief surgeon.

This medical station treats thirty to forty patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have devastating leg injuries necessitating surgical removal, or serious abdominal injuries. Others can move on their own. Almost all are the casualties of enemy first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly precision. “90% of our patients are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. It’s an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of conflict,” the doctor said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the underground installation for caring for injured troops in the eastern region.

During one day recently, three military members walked with difficulty into the hospital. The most lightly injured, 28-year-old one soldier, said an FPV blast had torn a small hole in his limb. “War is horrific. The guy next to me, Vasyl, was fatally wounded,” he stated. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “All structures in the village is demolished. We see drones everywhere and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi said his unit endured 43 days in a wooded zone close to Pokrovsk, which Russia has been attempting to capture for many months. The only way to reach their position was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by quadcopter: rations and water. Seven days after he was injured, he traveled five kilometers (about 3 miles), requiring three hours, to where an military transport was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a nurse provided him with fresh non-military attire: a T-shirt and a pair of pale jeans.

Artem Dvorskiy, 28, said a first-person view drone ripped a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, thirty-eight-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had resulted in a head injury. “I was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous explosions.” A builder employed in Lithuania, he said he had come back to his homeland and volunteered to serve shortly before Vladimir Putin’s large-scale attack in early 2022.

A third soldier, Taras Mykolaichuk, had been struck in the back. He groaned as doctors laid him on a bed, took off a stained dressing and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he used a mobile phone to ring his sister. “A piece of mortar hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To get better. This may require a several months. After that, to go back to my military group. Someone has to protect our country,” he affirmed.

Doctors care for the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a fragment of mortar.

Over the past years, Russia has consistently targeted hospitals, clinics, maternity wards and emergency vehicles. Per human rights groups, 261 health workers have been fatally attacked in nearly 2,000 assaults. The underground facility is constructed from four steel bunkers, with wooden supports, earth and sand placed above reaching ground level. It can withstand impacts from large-caliber artillery shells and even three 8kg explosive devices released by drone.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, intends to erect 20 facilities in all. The head of the nation's security agency and ex- military leader, Rustem Umerov, said they would be “critically essential for preserving the survival of our armed forces and supporting troops on the frontline.” The company described the project as the “largest-scale and demanding” it had implemented since the enemy's military offensive.

One of the facility's operating theatres.

Holovashchenko, said certain wounded personnel had to endure delays many hours or even multiple days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “Our facility received two critically ill casualties who arrived at 3am. I had to perform a removal of both limbs on one of them. His bleeding control device had been applied for such an extended period there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe surgeries? “I’ve been healthcare for two decades. You have to concentrate,” he remarked.

Orderlies transported the soldier up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The transport was stationed beneath a shrub. He and the other soldiers were taken to the urban center of Dnipro for further treatment. The subterranean hospital staff took a break. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, walked toward the entrance to greet the next arrivals. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon said. “The work is continuous.”