Ukrainian “Baba Yaga” Drone Hunts Down Russian Troops to Free Captured Soldiers

A Ukrainian Vampire heavy bomber drone crew freed two infantrymen from Russian captivity on the Sumy region front, according to Militarnyi on May 11.

The rescue unfolded in April when Russian forces overran positions of a neighboring unit and seized two Ukrainian soldiers. Command radioed for help, and a Vampire crew from the 21st Separate Mechanized Brigade, stationed only a few kilometers away, scrambled to respond.

As the Russians led the captured soldiers back toward their lines, the drone team closed in from above. Within minutes, dispatchers confirmed which figures on the ground were friendly and cleared the operators to engage. The Russians panicked when they heard the heavy bomber hovering overhead, abandoned their captives, and tried to flee on foot.

"We dropped on one. There was literally nothing left of him immediately," the operation's navigator recounted in footage published by the unit. "The second just started running away. We caught up with him."

Both freed soldiers returned to their units uninjured. The strike is the first known case of a Ukrainian drone freeing servicemen from captivity on the Northern Slobozhanshchyna axis. A Vampire crew carried out a similar rescue earlier this year near Hulyaipole.

"There have been many situations where drones really saved lives. But that they saved someone from captivity, this is the first time I have heard such a thing," the operator added.

A separate case near Pokrovsk illustrated the same pattern of battlefield improvisation off the drone screen.

A Ukrainian serviceman from the 155th Separate Mechanized Brigade captured two Russian assault troops after posing as one of them. The soldier, identified by the call sign "Alex," was sheltering in a dugout with a wounded comrade when Russian voices approached the Ukrainian position.

He answered in Russian, gave the troops directions toward the dugout, and waited as they entered one by one. The deception held long enough for Alex to confront them at close range and force both to surrender without a firefight.

The captured pair was then moved back toward Ukrainian lines in difficult conditions. Alex and his wounded comrade escorted the prisoners through mud for three days before reaching friendly positions.

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