Ukraine claims first drone evacuation of wounded soldier

Ukraine's 92nd Separate Assault Brigade says it carried out the world's first evacuation of a wounded infantryman by aerial drone, posting a video that shows a soldier strapping into a large heavy‑lift hexacopter and being flown at low altitude to a safe area. The unit says conventional unmanned ground vehicles could not reach him because of intense enemy drone activity and landmines, so specialists adapted a heavy hexacopter - originally designed as a bomber and roughly twice the size of the soldier - to carry a human without flipping or excessive sway. Faces of operators were blurred in the footage; the rescued serviceman is now undergoing treatment and rehabilitation, and the squad leader-programmer known by the call sign Napalm praised the soldier for agreeing to the risky procedure.

The mission is presented as both a tactical solution and a sign of how the war has become a technological arms race, with drones increasingly used to reduce casualties and to strike logistics, oil facilities, warehouses and data centers. The evacuation coincides with Kiev approving an experimental program to use drones for medical logistics - carrying medicines, blood samples and organs under military coordination and special in‑air status - even as Kyiv faces diplomatic pressure to curb strikes on Russian energy sites and reported limits on intelligence sharing and Starlink access.