Ukraine’s 92nd Separate Assault Brigade said on October 19, 2026 that its Unmanned Ground Systems Company used a modified heavy hexacopter to fly a wounded infantryman out of a front-line position, according to Ukrainska Pravda, UNITED24 Media, Militarnyi, the Kyiv Post, the Kyiv Independent and Stars and Stripes. UNITED24 reported that the brigade called it “the world’s first such operation.” No outlet Lens read independently verified that claim, and Newsweek said it could not verify when or where the footage was filmed.

Why a drone

According to the company’s statement, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda, evacuating the soldier with ground robots “was impossible” because of high enemy drone activity and mined terrain. Militarnyi reported the same reasons.

Who took part

  • The soldier served in the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade, and a 30th Brigade drone operator flew the aircraft (UNITED24, Militarnyi, Kyiv Post, DroneXL).
  • The 14th Mechanized Brigade and the 10th Army Corps were credited with coordination.
  • The brigade said Ukrainian manufacturer Gurzuf Defence supplied the aircraft free of charge and that its specialists worked with the manufacturer to keep the drone stable in flight.

The aircraft

The brigade did not name a model. The Kyiv Independent and Newsweek identified it as Gurzuf Defence’s Heavy Shot “Ayudag-6” heavy-lift hexacopter; DroneXL said neither the brigade nor Gurzuf had identified the airframe and treated the Ayudag-6 as a candidate. Published figures for the Ayudag-6 give an airframe of about 98 kg, a payload of 70 to 90 kg and a range of up to 25 km (Kyiv Independent, citing Ukrainska Pravda). According to the Kyiv Independent, rescuers first delivered equipment with carabiners, then sent the drone with a winch, and the soldier attached himself to it.

What is not settled

  • Distance and time: 62 km and 1 hour 14 minutes 36 seconds (Kyiv Independent); 62 km and “more than an hour” (Newsweek). Outlets relaying the brigade’s statement gave no distance. The 62 km figure is longer than the Ayudag-6’s published 25 km range, and no outlet explained the difference.
  • The date and place of the flight were not officially disclosed.

The soldier

The brigade said his life is no longer in danger. On October 20, UNITED24, citing Oboronka, and Militarnyi, citing an interview by journalist Yuriy Butusov, named him as Kostiantyn Vlasenko and said he had spent 491 days at his position; the Kyiv Independent, citing Gurzuf, said nearly 500 days. Both outlets reported that he had suffered severe leg injuries from Russian drone strikes.

What was said

“Napalm,” a squad commander in the brigade’s ground systems company, said: “This is a historic event, at least for our unit,” (UNITED24, Newsweek). Pavlo Feldblium, a co-founder of Gurzuf Defense, told the Kyiv Independent: “Air rescue is a last resort when there is no other way to save a person,” and said air evacuation should not be treated as a routine practice.

A purpose-built medevac drone

The Associated Press reported on October 15 that SkyFall’s StarGate, a six-rotor drone with a stretcher cabin, had been handed to a combat brigade for front-line evaluation after a field demonstration on October 14. SkyFall’s figures are a payload of up to 150 kg, a one-way range of 15 km and a cost of at least $50,000 per system. On October 26, the AP reported that the 475th Separate Assault Regiment said StarGate had flown two missions in the preceding week, each under 15 minutes, rescuing two soldiers about 5 km from the Russian border.

Ground robots this year

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence said on September 7 that ground robots had carried out about 112,000 logistics and evacuation missions since the start of 2026, rising from 7,511 in January to 25,143 in August. It did not separate evacuations from logistics.

Related: Ukraine’s Third Army Corps says its drones dropped armed ground robots behind Russian lines.

Sources and notes

Sources: Ukrainska Pravda, October 19, 2026; UNITED24 Media, October 19 and October 20; Militarnyi, October 19 and October 20 (Ukrainian); Kyiv Post, October 19; Kyiv Independent, October 19; Stars and Stripes, October 19; Newsweek, October 19; DroneXL, October 19; AP via Anchorage Daily News, October 15 and ClickOnDetroit, October 26; Ministry of Defence of Ukraine, September 7. Notes: the brigade’s own Telegram and Facebook posts were read only as relayed by these outlets. A report by Inside Unmanned Systems that places the flight near Kupiansk on October 4 could not be opened and is not used. Lens did not read Oboronka or the Butusov interview. Thumbnail photo: a US Marine Corps TRV-150 heavy-lift cargo drone landing with a supply bag during a blood-resupply rehearsal in Queensland, Australia, July 2026, U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Caleb Goodwin, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons; cropped. Illustrative stand-in: it shows a different, four-rotor drone, not the aircraft used in Ukraine.

Image: U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl. Caleb Goodwin (public domain), via Wikimedia Commons.