
AI-generated summary
Since the Russian invasion in 2022, the use of military drones has seen significant growth in Ukraine, particularly for reconnaissance and strikes, but now also for humanitarian missions such as evacuating the wounded.
The Ukrainian armed forces declared on Monday that they had orchestrated for the first time an evacuation operation using an aerial drone of a soldier injured on the front. Since the Russian invasion in 2022, the use of this technology has seen significant growth.
The drone unit of the 92nd mechanized brigade in charge of this mission specified that it was not possible to carry out this evacuation otherwise due to the presence of mines and Russian drones in the area where the soldier was located. “Our company’s specialists therefore took the initiative to carry out an unprecedented operation: evacuating a soldier using an aerial drone,” the unit wrote in a Facebook post illustrated with a video of the operation.
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“The air route is a last resort”
In these images, we see behind the scenes of the operation from the control room but also on site thanks to the device's onboard camera. We observe the drone descending to the soldier who clings to it using straps before flying away. The device, a circular structure more than a meter in diameter, is equipped with several propeller rotors.
In a press release, its manufacturer, Gurzuf Defense, explained that this 1 hour and 14 minute mission required the device to travel 62 kilometers. The co-founder of this Ukrainian construction company, Pavlo Feldblum, indicated that it did not seem possible to him that “air evacuation could become a common practice” because of the “risks for a person injured in the air” which would be “too high” according to him. “The air route is a last resort, when there is no other chance of saving a person,” he assures.
The first evacuation documented by aerial drone in a combat zone
AI outlook — possibilities, not facts
The use of drones for medical evacuation may be tested in other units of the Ukrainian army in the coming months.
Possible · Within months
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