A recent video released by Ukraine’s 92nd Assault Brigade reportedly showed a heavy bomber drone helping to evacuate a soldier, in what was the world’s first attempt to use a drone for the mission. “Due to high enemy drone activity and mined terrain, evacuating him using traditional unmanned ground systems was impossible,” said the brigade.
The soldier, Kostiantyn Vlasenko, had been cut off for months and had lost a leg. In the end, alone and fearing gangrene, he decided to amputate the other. Earlier attempts to reach him had failed.
Ukraine has been testing medical evacuations with aerial drones throughout this year and had previously used ground robots.
“This is the first time in human history that such an operation has been carried out,” says Anatolii, a commander of a mortar battery unit from the unit. “I think we’ll see it happen more often, but everything will depend on the conditions . . . [it works best] in rain or fog.”
The widespread use of drones across the front, and the expansion of the kill zone, moving in and out and getting the wounded evacuated from the front has become a very dangerous job.
“With drone warfare, we’ve lost the golden hour,” says Michael Samotowka, a surgeon who has volunteered in Ukraine. Now on the frontline, injured soldiers can often be stranded for weeks or even months before they can be evacuated, while often dealing with tourniquet syndrome. With soldiers unable to be evacuated and treated for extended periods, it creates conditions for “super warbugs,” as some infections eventually become resistant to antibiotics.
The government has not revealed how many personnel have lost limbs, but in 2024 a British general said the number was greater than the UK regular army, which has 74,000 troops. Amputees can get access to advanced prosthetics, but they face a battle to recover, and the societal cost is enormous.
Highly advanced Western battlefield medical practices developed during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan relied heavily on helicopter evacuations, enabled by coalition air superiority. In Ukraine, enemy drones and air defenses have made such evacuations near the front line largely impractical, forcing wounded soldiers to rely on slower, more dangerous ground evacuations.
“It’s going to address a huge problem because, unfortunately, Ukrainians currently have to leave wounded soldiers in the field for prolonged periods, which increases their morbidity and mortality,” said Samotowka. “Whether it’s a ground robot or an aerial drone, that helps get patients off the battlefield and into a setting where they can receive care is going to make a big difference.”
However, they’re still not an ideal tool. Kyrylo Matros, senior combat medic of the 1st Separate Assault Regiment, said using large aerial drones to evacuate wounded soldiers would be easy targets, such as for fiber-optic drones. “There’s nowhere to hide in the sky, and these drones would be highly visible,” said Matros.
Matros added, “A ground robot, on the other hand, can be concealed in bushes or driven into a ditch if there’s a threat along the route. It can also stop and remain hidden in a tree line, reducing the risk of detection.”
In addition to having skilled drone operators to conduct the operation, the drone needs proper protection. Ground robots, for example, that evacuate injured soldiers, use armored capsules to be able to withstand even mine blasts.
Still, heavy bombers have continued to play an increasingly important role on the battlefield. They’ve allowed Ukrainian soldiers to depend on them for logistics and to move more quickly across the front while being resupplied, in addition to extensive use of mining and bombing operations.
If the heavy bombers do continue proliferating across the front in terms of successful evacuations, the Russians would step up interception efforts. In future, such bombers could have smaller interceptors attached to hit incoming enemy drones. Looking ahead, these operations are likely to be conducted with greater frequency in the right conditions.
First, where humans cannot go, ground robots attempt the evacuations. And if all else fails, the heavy bombers can be deployed. Anything that can be done to save lives while not risking other soldiers will be done.
Unmanned systems will continue growing on the battlefield. This innovation is yet another step in the evolution of warfare in Ukraine and beyond.
David Kirichenko is a Ukrainian-American freelance journalist who has been covering Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine since 2022, and is an Associate Research Fellow at the Henry Jackson Society. He can be found on X/Twitter @DVKirichenko.
Europe’s Edge is CEPA’s online journal covering critical topics on the foreign policy docket across Europe and North America. All opinions expressed on Europe’s Edge are those of the author alone and may not represent those of the institutions they represent or the Center for European Policy Analysis. CEPA maintains a strict intellectual independence policy across all its projects and publications.
