A Ukrainian soldier severed his own foot to survive. Then came a dramatic rescue.
The rescue capped more than six months of planning and used a modified heavy-lift drone to bypass minefields and Russian surveillance.
- On October 4, Ukraine successfully evacuated Kostiantyn Vlasenko, an infantryman from the 30th Mechanized Brigade, marking the first drone-based rescue of a wounded soldier from a war zone.
- After a Russian drone munition devastated both his legs, Vlasenko became unable to walk and was pinned in hostile territory; he amputated his own right foot with a knife as his left foot developed necrosis.
- Intelligence chief Alex of the 2nd Mechanized Battalion spent six months planning the mission using a Heavy Shot Ayudag-6 UAV, executing the extraction at dusk while Vampire drones diverted Russian fire.
- Stranded for 70 weeks in Kharkiv, Vlasenko survived on airdrops of food and Stephen King's novel 'The Outsider,' later saying, 'I felt safe and relieved — I would finally see my family soon.'
- Previous rescue attempts had failed as enemy drones and Russian forces blocked ground access, but the successful extraction relied on helicopters and artillery shelling Russian launch sites to secure the corridor.
58 Articles
58 Articles
The Ukrainian soldier Vlasenko was evacuated from his position with a drone. In the interview he talks about his 491 day long fight.
Photos published by the Ukrainian army showed the moment a soldier was rescued on the front of the fighting with Russia for more than 16 months, via a drone in an operation that was the first of its kind in the war that had been going on for nearly five years.
The soldier Konstantin Vlasenko spent 491 days in a combat position, lost both legs and continued to perform tasks.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has meant a real revolution in the history of war and war strategies. Some analysts have pointed out that Ukraine’s military conflict is a mixture of first world war and pre-galaxis war. The trenches and stability of infantry positions are combined with the intensive use of drones. The front has ceased to be a mobile line to pierce, to become a gigantic area, up to 80 kilometers wide, where the main plane moves away …
Impossible minefields in the Kharkiv area made salvage on the ground impossible and forced a first supply from the air.
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