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Sparse foliage conceal the entrance. A sloping wooden tunnel descends to a brightly lit welcome zone. Inside lies a operating ward, equipped with gurneys, heart rate sensors and ventilators. Plus cabinets full of healthcare supplies, drugs and neat piles of extra garments. In a staff room with a washing machine and kettle, doctors keep an eye on a screen. It shows the movements of enemy spy drones as they weave in the sky above.

Medical staff at an subterranean hospital look at a monitor showing Russian kamikaze and surveillance UAVs in the area.

Welcome to the nation's secret below-ground medical facility. This center opened in the eighth month and is the second of its kind, situated in eastern Ukraine not far from the combat zone and the city of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. “Our facility sits 6 metres below the ground. This is the most secure method of delivering care to our wounded soldiers. And it keeps medical personnel protected,” said the facility's surgeon, Maj Oleksandr Holovashchenko.

This medical station treats 30-40 patients a each day. Their conditions vary. Certain individuals suffer from catastrophic limb trauma requiring surgical removal, or serious stomach wounds. Some patients can move on their own. The vast majority are the victims of Russian FPV aerial devices, which release grenades with deadly accuracy. “Ninety per cent of our cases are from FPVs. We see minimal bullet injuries. This is an era of unmanned aircraft and a different kind of war,” the surgeon explained.

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

On one afternoon last week, a group of three military members limped into the hospital. The least severely hurt, 28-year-old Artem Dvorskyi, reported an FPV explosion had torn a small hole in his limb. “Conflict is horrific. The guy beside me, a fellow soldier, was killed,” he said. “He fell down. Then the enemy forces dropped a another grenade on him.” He continued: “Everything in the village is demolished. There are UAVs all around and bodies. Our side's and theirs.”

Dvorskyi explained his unit spent 43 days in a forest area close to the city, which enemy forces has been trying to seize for many months. Sole access to get to their location was by walking. All supplies came by quadcopter: rations and drinking water. Seven days following he was hurt, he walked 5km (roughly three miles), requiring several hours, to a point where an armoured vehicle was able to evacuate him. At the clinic, a medical staff checked his physical condition. After treatment, a nurse gave him fresh civilian clothes: a T-shirt and a set of light-colored denim trousers.

The soldier, twenty-eight, stated a FPV drone ripped a minor injury in his leg.

Another patient, 38-year-old a serviceman, recounted a UAV explosion had resulted in a head injury. “My position was in a dugout. Suddenly it became black. I lost sensation any feeling or hear anything,” he said. “I believe I was fortunate to survive. A relative has been lost. There are continuous explosions.” A builder working in a neighboring country, Filipchuk noted he had returned to his homeland and volunteered to fight days before the Russian leader's full-scale invasion in February 2022.

A third soldier, a serviceman, had been struck in the back. He expressed pain as medical staff laid him on a medical cot, took off a stained bandage and treated his two-day-old injury from fragments. Wrapped in a thermal sheet, he borrowed a mobile phone to call his sister. “A fragment of artillery hit me. The cause was a deflected projectile. I’m OK,” he informed her. What comes next for him? “To recover. This may require a several months. After that, to return to my military group. Someone has to protect our nation,” he affirmed.

Doctors treat the wounded soldier, who was injured in the dorsal area by a piece of artillery shell.

Over the past years, enemy forces has repeatedly attacked hospitals, health facilities, maternity wards and ambulances. According to human rights groups, 261 medical personnel have been killed in nearly two thousand attacks. This subterranean hospital is built from four steel bunkers, with timber beams, soil and sand laid on top reaching ground level. It is designed to resist impacts from large-caliber projectiles and even three 8kg explosive devices dropped by drone.

The Ukrainian steel and mining company, which financed the construction, plans to build twenty units in total. The head of the nation's national security council and ex- defence minister, Rustem Umerov, declared they would be “critically essential for saving the survival of our military and assisting defenders on the frontline.” The company referred to the initiative as the “most ambitious and demanding” it had implemented since Russia’s military offensive.

One of the centre’s surgical rooms.

The surgeon, said certain wounded personnel had to wait hours or even days before they could be transported due to the danger of aerial attacks. “We had a pair of severely injured patients who came at the early hours. It was necessary to perform a double amputation on a patient. The soldier's bleeding control device had been on for such an extended period there was no other option.” How did he cope with severe operations? “My career in medicine for two decades. You have to focus,” he remarked.

Medical assistants transported Mykolaichuk through the tunnel and into an ambulance. The vehicle was parked under a shrub. The patient and the two other military members were taken to the city of a major city for further treatment. The subterranean medical team paused for rest. The facility's orange feline, the mascot, padded up to the doorway to await the next arrivals. “Our facility operates open 24 hours a day,” Holovashchenko said. “It doesn’t stop.”