A company of ground robotic complexes Alter Ego of the 93rd Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine "Kholodnyi Yar" evacuated an injured serviceman from the battlefield with the help of drones.
A soldier of the "Alcatraz" battalion with the call sign "Yanyk" stepped on a "petal" type mine, lost part of his foot due to the explosion, and couldn’t get out on his own, but the drone came to the rescue. The brigade reported the details of the complex mission in their video on YouTube.
The soldier detonated near the position he was heading to, and his comrade with the call sign "Jackie Chan" dragged him into a dugout and provided medical aid. The military couldn’t contact the command for a long time and were temporarily considered missing. They remained under cover of the position from April 27 to August 9, which was later set on fire by the Russians.
Later, allied units spotted the soldiers, delivered a radio to them using a UAV, and then began planning the evacuation. "Jackie Chan" and "Yanyk" covered half the way on their own in six days, moving through the rear at night or in the rain to avoid enemy detection. "Yanyk" had to move crawling on his knees. Thus, they covered the area that the GRC previously couldn’t reach due to a physical obstacle.
Then, the Alter Ego company dispatched the GRC. The first drone, transporting "Yanyk," hit an improvised explosive device and was disabled. Fortunately, it had shrapnel protection, so the soldier was unharmed and could move to shelter. A day later, a second GRC was sent, which managed to cover about 15 km and successfully evacuated the injured to Kostyantynivka in about six hours, where he was picked up by medics.
"Thanks to the platform. As much as it rode me, I definitely couldn’t cover that distance myself. It would have taken me a month," shared "Yanyk." — "From 12 at night to 6 in the morning, the drone carried me."
The commander of the GRC company "Elektryk" shared that the unit constantly keeps the unmanned platform ready for evacuation, which is its main task. Previously, mission planning could take several days, but now it’s reduced to a few hours.
He reported that there was also a third GRC, which couldn’t reach the soldiers due to a faulty part not detected during testing. According to "Elektryk," the Armed Forces of Ukraine need more ground drones to perform more successful missions.