How the rescue unfolded

According to the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade, which announced the operation on Monday, an aerial drone retrieved a wounded soldier directly from the front line. The brigade published video showing the aircraft lowering itself to the ground, where a man in combat gear fastened himself to a winch onboard and was lifted upwards. The brigade did not say where the evacuation took place.

A year and a half out of reach

Gurzuf Defence, the drone's manufacturer, said the man had spent almost a year and a half in a dangerous combat position and could not be rescued by conventional means. Reaching him on foot, the company said, would have endangered the rescuers themselves.

The drone and the onward evacuation

The aircraft used in the mission was an Ayudag-6 hexacopter, according to Gurzuf Defence, which said it brought the wounded man to a safer position where comrades met him and arranged his onward evacuation to a hospital.

The brigade's drone unit said on Facebook that the operation succeeded:

• •The wounded person was saved and is undergoing treatment and rehabilitation
• •His life is no longer in danger

Drones on a changed battlefield

Ukraine has long used unmanned ground vehicles to evacuate wounded soldiers from the battlefield, but this is the first reported instance of an aerial drone doing so. The 92nd Assault Brigade's drone unit called the operation a "world first".

Both Russia and Ukraine have made extensive use of drones in the four-and-a-half-year war that began with Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Military analysts have described the battlefield, shaped by heavy combat drone use on both sides, as a "kill zone" where neither side has a clear advantage.

The brigade said the wounded soldier is now undergoing treatment and rehabilitation and his life is no longer in danger.