Ukrainian soldier evacuated from the front by drone for first time

Ukrainian serviceman Kostiantyn Vlasenko of the 30th Mechanized Brigade spent more than sixteen months in the combat zone, including 491 days almost completely alone. The badly wounded soldier was eventually taken off the front line on a heavy bomber drone, which, according to reports, is the first time the Ukrainian army has evacuated a wounded man from the front line by unmanned aircraft.

“I had already buried myself alive. You understand what I mean: for 491 days I was practically alone,” the 49-year-old soldier said in a video released by an international news agency. He was seriously wounded during a mission: according to Vlasenko, he looked up and saw an enemy drone dropping a munition. Shrapnel hit his neck and legs.

Despite his wounds, he kept reporting enemy movements while the enemy tried to force him to surrender. Vlasenko refused. He lost his left leg to necrosis and had to amputate the right one himself; he said it was the most terrible moment: “It was just dragging behind me and getting in the way. It could not be saved.”

According to Ukrainian media, thoughts of his family helped him endure. His commanders sent him medicine and food by drone, as well as a parcel from his wife with a Stephen King book.

Evacuating the wounded man with a robotic cart did not work: there were too many Russian drones in the sky and the terrain was mined. So Ukrainian troops decided on an “exceptionally difficult” evacuation using a heavy bomber hexacopter, an aircraft with six propellers and motors on six arms.

“It sounded like a helicopter landing. There was a loud, deep rumble. That sound will stay in my memory for the rest of my life: the ‘hum of rescue,’” Vlasenko added.

Around Prague, based on reporting by seznamzpravy.cz