Armoured ‘coffin’ saves wounded Ukrainian soldier 33 days after landmine shattered his foot
A Ukrainian soldier trapped for 33 days behind enemy lines after a landmine exploded underfoot was rescued by an unmanned stretcher vehicle.
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Comrades of the badly wounded Ukrainian solider sent six rescue missions to try and bring him to safety but escape vehicles were all destroyed by drones and mines.
The solider, who had put a tourniquet on his shattered leg, survived for 33 days. On the seventh attempt, an unmanned rescue vehicle was sent for him
It crawled over 40 miles along enemy lines and withstood landmines and drone attacks before eventually reaching the injured soldier.
The casket-shaped robot pulled up near the soldier and he managed to crawl inside and seal himself in before it made a return journey under heavy fire.
The rescue was carried out by Ukraine’s First Separate Medical Battalion. They said: “If the fighter didn’t give up, we had no right to give up.”
The vehicle limped to the rescue after losing a wheel to a landmine. After the wounded man was on board, it was targeted by drones but it kept moving.
The soldier was returned to medics, who amputated his foot. He is undergoing rehab in Kyiv.
Volodymyr Koval of the First Separate Medical Battalion told the Telegraph: “The mission involved dozens of people – pilots, navigators, the planning group, drone operators providing overwatch, specialists from supporting units, and the medical evacuation team that was waiting to receive the wounded soldier.”
Volodymyr Zelenskyy said: “We will scale up exactly this kind of technological backbone for our army – more ground robotic systems operating at the front.”