Ukrainian soldier rescued by drone after surviving 70 weeks with self-amputated leg
Ukrainian infantryman Kostiantyn Vlasenko endured more than a year in a deadly front-line zone, amputated his own leg to survive, and became the first combatant evacuated by an aerial drone.
Kostiantyn Vlasenko, originally a truck driver from Kryvyi Rih, volunteered for service and was assigned to the 30th mechanized brigade. In June he took over a position with a fellow soldier, Baski, inside a concrete drainage pipe near Kharkiv, a spot that became known as the "zone of death" after Russian reconnaissance drones saturated the sky. When floodwaters inundated the pipe, the two men moved to a destroyed school, where Vlasenko was hit in the left leg by drone-dropped munitions and injured his right leg while seeking food.
Over the following months, frostbite caused his left foot to die and later the lower part of his right leg, prompting him to amputate the left foot with a knife. Throughout his isolation, he received food and medicine via drone drops and kept reporting enemy movements. In February, Ukrainian commanders decided to attempt the first-ever drone evacuation, attaching a video tutorial to his phone and lifting him with a heavy drone to a height of 120 metres before other drones carried him 18 kilometres to a medical facility, where he now recuperates.
Why it matters
The rescue shows drones can be used for medical evacuation, expanding their role beyond combat in modern warfare.
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