A soldier holding the position alone

A 49-year-old soldier was wounded in both legs in the Kharkiv region after his comrade was killed, and he kept the position on his own. Mines and enemy drone activity made it impossible to bring him back on foot. In an account given to the Ukrainian website censor.net, he said Russian forces used a loudspeaker to pressure him, telling him his comrades would not help and offering captivity and an exchange. He rejected the surrender offers and shouted a reply that the account links to the defenders of Snake Island. He said two anti-tank mines were dropped near him afterwards. A supply drone delivered water, food, ammunition and medicine while he stayed in place.

Ground robots failed, then a drone

The Ukrainian Ground Forces said the position was heavily mined and under intense enemy drone activity, so the usual evacuation by unmanned ground vehicles could not be used. Several methods were tried first, including ground robotic systems, and all of them failed. Originally, the evacuation was discussed as a task for a drone developed by the company SkyFall, and a SkyFall spokesman, whose identity was withheld for security reasons, said the idea came directly from the trenches. The final choice was a heavy hexacopter from the Ukrainian manufacturer Gurzuf Defence, which the company supplied free of charge.

Modifying a strike drone

The hexacopter has six motors and six propellers and is normally used for attack missions. Specialists from the brigade's unmanned ground systems company worked with the manufacturer and other army units to modify it so it could carry the soldier's weight without tipping over. The soldier was suspended in a climbing harness to stop him swinging during flight. Before the operation the team ran preliminary tests. A drone operator from the 30th Mechanized Brigade, the soldier's own unit, flew the mission, and units from the 10th Army Corps and the 14th Mechanized Brigade were also involved.

Outcome and official account

The Ground Forces said the soldier had kept repelling enemy attacks in extremely difficult conditions before he was evacuated. Once he reached the evacuation point, the army confirmed the operation had succeeded. In its statement, the Ground Forces said:

“The soldier was successfully delivered to the evacuation point. He is now undergoing treatment and rehabilitation, and his life is no longer in danger.”

The brigade's statement described the evacuation as the first of its kind carried out anywhere in the world. A squad commander in the brigade's unmanned ground systems company said serious systematic work now begins so that such missions can happen regularly.