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Surrounded by Russian Forces, Ukrainian Soldier Survives 491 Days Before Drone Rescue
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A Ukrainian soldier who survived 491 days on a frontline position and amputated his own foot was evacuated by a heavy aerial drone in a reportedly unprecedented rescue operation, according to Oboronka on October 19.
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Kostiantyn Vlasenko, a volunteer from Kryvyi Rih serving with Ukraine’s 30th Mechanized Brigade, defended a position known as Vertun, established inside a concrete drainage pipe. He initially shared the position with another soldier, who was killed on February 16, his 50th birthday. Vlasenko remained behind alone, surrounded by Russian forces.
Russian troops knew his location and attempted to persuade him to surrender, even dropping a speaker broadcasting messages promising evacuation. Vlasenko refused. Subsequent Russian drone attacks severely injured both his legs. His left foot eventually detached following tissue necrosis, while he amputated his right foot himself using a knife.
"Tears were streaming. I had to cut. And I cut it off," Vlasenko recalled. He later joked to his commander that he no longer had flat feet or needed size-44 shoes. Throughout his isolation, thoughts of his wife and daughter Khrystyna helped him endure. His wife also sent him Stephen King's novel "The Outsider," which he read while remaining in the position.
In another account of his ordeal, Vlasenko described crawling back to where his severed feet had been left and finding orange-and-black butterflies flying nearby. "I thought, God, even butterflies have emerged from my legs," he recalled.
The rescue required coordination across several Ukrainian units, as conventional ground robots could not reach Vlasenko's position amid intense Russian drone activity and heavily mined terrain.
Personnel from the 92nd Assault Brigade, the 30th and 14th Mechanized Brigades, and the 10th Army Corps adapted a Gurzuf Defence hexacopter, originally configured as a bomber, to carry him. The manufacturer supplied the drone free of charge, and specialists modified it to improve stability and tested it at the company's facilities before the mission.
Vlasenko's rescue comes as Ukraine moves to turn aerial casualty evacuation into a dedicated front-line capability.
Days earlier, Ukraine began front-line testing of StarGate, its first drone built specifically to retrieve wounded soldiers from areas too dangerous for vehicles or evacuation teams.
Developed by defense technology company SkyFall at the request of the 475th Separate Assault Regiment, the drone can carry up to 150 kilograms over a one-way range of 15 kilometers.
That allows it to cover distances in minutes that ground robots may need two to three hours to reach, at an expected cost of at least $50,000 per system.
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