Ukraine drone airlifts wounded soldier, brigade says

A Ukrainian army brigade said Monday it rescued a wounded soldier from the front line using an aerial drone, describing the evacuation as the first operation of its kind.

The drone unit of Ukraine’s 92nd Separate Assault Brigade posted a video showing a drone lowering itself to the ground before a man in combat gear fastens himself to a winch and is lifted into the air.

The brigade did not say where the evacuation took place. It said the wounded man was saved, was undergoing treatment and rehabilitation, and that his life was no longer in danger.

The drone’s manufacturer, Gurzuf Defence, said the man had spent almost a year and a half in a dangerous combat position and could not be rescued by conventional means because any attempt to reach him would have posed a deadly risk to rescuers.

Gurzuf Defence said the Ayudag-6 hexacopter carried the soldier to a safer position, where comrades arranged his onward evacuation to a hospital.

Ukraine has long used unmanned ground vehicles to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield. The 92nd Assault Brigade’s drone unit described this as a “world first” for an aerial drone evacuation.

Both Russia and Ukraine have used drones extensively in the four-and-a-half-year war, which began with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.