Ukraine releases video of claimed front-line drone rescue of wounded soldier

Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade released footage on 19 October of what it says was the evacuation of a wounded soldier from a front-line position by aerial drone. The brigade calls it a world first. If the operation took place as described, it would show a way to reach a casualty when ground evacuation is too dangerous, but the claim to a global first remains unverified. [1]

The brigade says the soldier, an infantryman with the 30th Mechanised Brigade, had been wounded and could not be reached by a ground robot because of mines and intense Russian drone activity. A heavy six-rotor drone made by Gurzuf Defence carried him out, piloted by an operator from the 30th, it says. The brigade says he is now receiving treatment and rehabilitation and that his life is no longer in danger. [1]

In the published video, a man straps himself into a carrier beneath the drone before it flies towards an evacuation point, according to Stars and Stripes. The military has not disclosed when or exactly where the flight took place. [3] BBC Verify says it confirmed the identities of military personnel in the video and found no signs of AI generation or manipulation. Those checks do not establish the circumstances of the flight or whether it was the first such rescue. [2]

Aerial casualty evacuation was already being tested: the Associated Press attended a demonstration of a different Ukrainian drone, StarGate, on 14 October. It carried a weighted stretcher, not a wounded soldier, far from the front line. [5] Gurzuf Defence co-founder Pavlo Feldblium told the Kyiv Independent that flying wounded people out should be a last resort because of the risks to them during the journey. [6]