Ukrainian troops have flown a wounded soldier off the front line with a heavy multirotor drone, in what the unit that organised the mission says was the world's first aerial evacuation of a casualty from the battlefield. The operation was carried out by specialists from the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade's unmanned systems company, working with other units and Ukrainian drone maker Gurzuf Defence, the brigade said in a statement reported by Ukraine's military news agency ArmyInform and by AFP/AP coverage.

The wounded soldier, an infantryman from the 30th Separate Mechanised Brigade, had been hit at a position that uncrewed ground vehicles — which Ukrainian units now routinely use to pull out wounded troops — could not reach. The brigade said Russian drone activity over the area was intense and the ground around the position was mined, leaving no safe route for a ground vehicle. Specialists therefore adapted a heavy hexacopter supplied by Gurzuf Defence, testing a solution that would let it carry a person while staying stable in flight, without tipping or swaying excessively, the brigade said.

Footage released by the brigade shows the drone descending, the soldier fastening himself into a harness beneath it, and the aircraft lifting him away. The brigade said the operation was successful, the soldier is now undergoing treatment and rehabilitation, and his life is no longer in danger. It did not say when or where the evacuation took place. Gurzuf Defence said its Ayudag-6 heavy hexacopter was used for the mission; company and brigade accounts of the flight's distance and duration have not been independently verified, and Awaaz Punjab presents them as the units' own claims.

Ukraine has long used unmanned ground vehicles for casualty evacuation, but this was the first reported instance of an aerial drone being used for the same purpose, according to AFP/AP reporting. The rescue also came days after Ukraine began frontline testing of a separate medical evacuation drone designed to carry a patient on a stretcher. Sources: ArmyInform, the Ukrainian military news agency (Oct 19, 2026); AFP/AP coverage via EuropeSays and Silicon UK; Defence Blog reporting on the 92nd Brigade statement.