Ukrainian forces evacuated a wounded infantryman from the front line using a heavy hexacopter drone, an operation the 92nd Separate Assault Brigade described on October 19 as the world’s first of its kind. Russian drone activity and mined terrain had ruled out a ground-based robotic evacuation. The military did not say when or where the mission took place.

The soldier, from the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade, had spent nearly 500 days at a front-line position, with fellow soldiers sending him food, water, ammunition and medicine by drone, Gurzuf Defense told the Kyiv Independent . After he was badly wounded, reaching him on foot or with a ground robot would have put the rescue team at risk.

Drone Limits Ground Options

Russian FPV drones hunt almost anything that moves in the “kill zone,” the belt tens of kilometers deep along the front, Euromaidan Press reported.…