A Russian drone strike first took one of Ukrainian soldier Kostiantyn Vlasenko’s legs and badly injured the other. Trapped under rubble and hoping to survive, he eventually cut off that second leg himself with a knife. After about 491 days stuck in an area under constant threat of drone attack, he was rescued with the help of a heavy drone.
In the rescue on Oct. 4, Vlasenko was strapped into a safety harness and lifted by a large six-rotor drone, which carried him about 15km to a safe place. The drone flew about 70 metres above the ground, and the whole flight took about 15 minutes.
The news agency Reuters reported Vlasenko’s account, and Ukraine’s military confirmed his rescue. Video filmed from drones during the operation shows part of what happened. Reuters said it could not independently verify every detail.
Vlasenko was serving with the 30th Mechanised Brigade in the Kharkiv region, where he was sent in May last year. The risk of Russian drone strikes in the area was so high that simply moving around could be deadly.
A fellow soldier with him, known as “Basky”, was killed in a Russian drone strike in February, on his 50th birthday. The same strike tore off Vlasenko’s left leg and badly injured his right.
Wounded, he took shelter under an old metal boiler in a space only 80cm long and 60cm wide, and was trapped there. Over time the wound on his left leg began to rot, and bone was showing through his right leg. In the end, hoping to stay alive, Vlasenko cut off his right leg with a knife and bandaged the wound to stop the bleeding.
Even after so long in that cramped space, he did not give up hope of rescue. In October a supply package reached him with a safety harness and a mobile phone, which held instruction videos on how to use the harness during the rescue.
A heavy drone was then chosen for the rescue. The six-rotor drone was built by the local company Gurzuf Defence. It can carry up to 90kg and fly up to 25km at a time.
The operation was not easy. Three small drones followed the one carrying Vlasenko to protect it. Four more small drones, artillery and large fixed-wing drones were used to strike the positions of Russian drones. The operation lasted about two hours.
The rescue team took Vlasenko to a safe place, which has not been named. Ukrainian forces needed several drones working together to rescue one wounded soldier who had been stranded for a long time in an isolated and dangerous area. The case also shows the growing role of drones in reaching wounded soldiers on the battlefield and moving them to safety.
বাংলায় মূল প্রতিবেদন পড়ুন · Read the original Bengali report