Ukraine war: drone rescues injured soldiers from the front for the first time

In the Ukraine war, a drone was able to transport an injured soldier from the front for the first time. The Ukrainian armed forces celebrate this with an image film on Telegram – including pathetic music.

Updated: Oct 20, 2026, 4:49 PM 2 min read deublitz newsroom Positive

This soldier is being rescued from a frontline area – via Hexakopter. For the first time, Ukraine has managed to fly an injured soldier by drone from a battle with Russian troops. And this, according to media reports, over 62 kilometers.

“We are already ready.” "All right, take off."

This video is intended to show the spectacular transport. Ukrainian land forces published it on their telegram channel on Monday. SPIEGEL confirmed the identity of one of the soldiers seen in the video and found no obvious evidence of the use of AI.

The frontline area has been deliberately pixelated by the armed forces to protect the exact evacuation site. According to the military, however, the injured soldier was in an area threatened by landmines and Russian drones. A conventional rescue was therefore not possible.

The soldier spent about 500 days at the front. Since February, he had been injured and cared for only with the help of drone supplies. At the beginning of October, the total rescue flight took place, which lasted a total of one hour and 14 minutes.

The soldier will now be treated medically, but his injuries are not life-threatening.

Napalm, Commander: An extremely complex operation, but very successful. I believe that it will go down in history in some way – certainly in that of our unity.

However: During the flight, the wounded soldier hung unprotected under a large and thus clearly visible drone. Whether and under which conditions such missions can be repeated, according to drone manufacturers for safety reasons therefore still has to be shown.