Ukraine’s military began using specialized aerial rescue drones for the first time, picking up two soldiers stranded in no man’s land near the Russian border, an elite fighting unit said Monday. According to Associated Press a newly developed evacuation drone called StarGate — a six-rotor aircraft fitted with an enclosed evacuation capsule — was used in two separate operations over the past week, according to the 475th Separate Assault Regiment. One of the rescued servicemen, identified by his call sign, “Izium,” in accordance with Ukrainian military protocol, described the rescue in an interview with The Associated Press. The 25-year-old from the 1st Territorial Defense Brigade waited two days to be evacuated and was unable to walk the 20-kilometer journey out of the combat area. “The injury tore off half of my foot, so a lot of blood was lost already,” he said, speaking by video call from his hospital room. “I think if that incredible little bird hadn’t flown in, well, getting out from there would have been unrealistic.” The drone, carrying an orange-and-black, casket-shaped stretcher, landed in a field where tall grass was tangled with fiber-optic spool cable, raising fears among Izium and fellow soldiers that it might get stuck. The flight to safety lasted less than 15 minutes. “From the bottom of my heart, I am so grateful that they actually flew in and picked me up,” he said. The 475th regiment, also known as Code 9.2, had tested StarGate for several weeks before deploying it on the battlefield. It said both rescued men had sustained “severe limb injuries and were at positions in the gray zone, approximately 5 kilometers from the state border with Russia,” referring to a strip of territory separating Ukrainian and Russian forces. The rescue drone was designed to extract injured soldiers from high-risk areas where heavy artillery fire and hostile drone activity make evacuations dangerous. Developed by Ukrainian technology company SkyFall, the drone is intended to reduce rescue times from hours to minutes, reaching hard-to-access combat zones that are currently served by unmanned ground vehicles. The Associated Press was granted exclusive access to the drone earlier this month, ahead of the final stage of testing. The manufacturer says the drone can carry 150 kilograms and is equipped with signal jammers and autonomous navigation to counter Russian electronic warfare systems. A spokesperson for the company said it planned to create a dedicated unit for the rescue craft, providing pilots and deployment specialists. “Service members who weren't sure if they would ever make it out of their positions are now able to return home and hug their children,” the spokesperson told the AP, asking not to be named, citing security risks facing Ukrainian military technology personnel. The commander of the Code 9.2 regiment, identified by the call sign “Flint,” said aerial evacuations would have a significant impact on rescue efforts. “In the future, we plan to make changes to the staffing structure of our regiment and create a separate medical aviation unit within the medical company,” he said. “It will specialize directly in evacuating wounded from the battlefield by air transport.”
Izium, who hopes to return to his hobby of beekeeping after the war, said he expects aerial rescue operations to be expanded. “I think this needs to be developed and expanded because we have a lot of guys who cannot get out of the situations they find themselves in,” he said.
“Having to walk very many kilometers with that level of shelling that is going on, whether walking yourself or carrying a wounded person — let’s just say making it out of there is not very likely.”
Source: Kanal13
