Ukraine claims world’s first drone evacuation of wounded soldier

Ukraine has shared a video showing what it says is the world’s first evacuation of an injured soldier from the frontlines by drone. The “historic” mission comes just as Kyiv faces a dire turn in its relationship with Washington over the withdrawal of support in its fight against Russia. Shared by the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade on Monday, the video shows the soldier strapping himself into a large drone and being flown at what appears to be relatively low altitude over blurred-out territory. The drone carefully lowers him down and the drone operator greets him with “Welcome back to the ground!” The video also showed blurred faces of drone operators who carried out the mission.

The post said the unidentified infantryman was wounded while at his position. “Due to intense enemy drone activity and the presence of landmines, evacuation using conventional unmanned ground vehicles was impossible,” the brigade said. “At that point, the specialists in our unit took it upon themselves to attempt something that had never been done before: evacuating a serviceman using an aerial drone,” it added. The craft used was a heavy-lift hexacopter, it said, originally designed as a bomber by a Ukrainian manufacturer. It looks about twice the size of the soldier in the video. The specialists working on the mission had to ensure the drone