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Scrubby foliage conceal the entrance. One descending wooden passageway descends to a well-illuminated reception area. Inside lies a operating ward, outfitted with beds, cardiac monitors and breathing machines. And shelves full of medical equipment, medications and neat piles of extra garments. Within a break area with a laundry appliance and hot water heater, physicians monitor a screen. It shows the flight patterns of Russian spy drones as they zigzag in the air above.

Hospital personnel at an underground medical center look at a monitor showing enemy kamikaze and surveillance drones in the area.

This is the nation's covert underground medical facility. The facility began operations in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in the eastern part of the country close to the combat zone and the urban area of a key location in Donetsk oblast. “We are 6 metres under the ground. It’s the most secure way of delivering care to our wounded military personnel. It also ensures medical personnel protected,” stated the facility's lead doctor, Major Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

The stabilisation point treats 30-40 patients a day. Cases differ widely. Some have catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can walk. The vast majority are the victims of Russian first-person view (FPV) aerial devices, which release explosives with deadly 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 new type of war,” the surgeon said.

Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko at the subterranean installation for treating wounded troops in eastern Ukraine.

During one day recently, three soldiers walked with difficulty into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had ripped a minor wound in his limb. “Conflict is terrible. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he stated. “He fell down. Subsequently the enemy forces dropped a second grenade on him.” He added: “Everything in the village is destroyed. There are drones everywhere and casualties. Our side's and the enemy's.”

Dvorskyi said his squad spent over a month in a wooded zone close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize since last year. The only way to get to their location was by walking. Necessary provisions arrived by drone: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he traveled five kilometers (roughly three miles), taking three hours, to where an armoured vehicle was able to pick him up. Upon arrival, a medic checked his physical condition. Following care, a nurse gave him new non-military attire: a T-shirt and a set of pale denim trousers.

Artem Dvorskiy, twenty-eight, stated a first-person view aerial device caused a small hole in his lower limb.

A different casualty, 38-year-old Pavlo Filipchuk, recounted a drone blast had left him with concussion. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it went dark. I lost sensation anything or hear anything,” he said. “I think I was lucky to remain alive. My cousin has been killed. There are continuous detonations.” A construction worker employed in Lithuania, Filipchuk noted he had come back to his homeland and enlisted to serve shortly before the Russian leader's large-scale attack in early 2022.

Another military member, 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 bandage and cleaned his two-day-old injury from fragments. Covered in a foil blanket, he used a cellphone to call his family member. “A piece of artillery hit me. The cause was a ricochet. My condition is stable,” he informed her. What were his plans now? “To recover. That will take a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Our forces has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

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

Over the past years, Russia has repeatedly targeted medical centers, health facilities, obstetric units and emergency vehicles. Per international monitors, 261 medical personnel have been fatally attacked in nearly two thousand attacks. The underground facility is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and granular material placed above up to ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even multiple 8kg TNT charges released by aerial means.

A major steel and mining company, which funded the building, plans to erect 20 facilities in all. The head of the nation's security agency and former defence minister, the official, said they would be “vitally essential for preserving the survival of our military and assisting defenders on the battlefront.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented after the enemy's invasion.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, explained some wounded personnel had to wait many hours or even days before they could be evacuated because of the threat of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured patients who came at 3am. It was necessary to perform a removal of both limbs on a patient. The soldier's tourniquet had been on for so long there was no alternative.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in medicine for 20 years. You have to focus,” he said.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk up the passage and into an emergency vehicle. The vehicle was parked under a shrub. He and the two other soldiers were transferred to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team took a break. The facility's orange feline, Vasilevs, padded up to the entrance to await the incoming patients. “We are active 24 hours a day,” the surgeon stated. “It doesn’t stop.”