The most incredible survival story you’ll read today: How Ukrainian fighter had to chop off his own LEG before becoming first man ever airlifted off a battlefield by drone…having spent 70 straight weeks stranded and injured in the killzone

Ukrainian infantryman Kostiantyn Vlasenko says he survived 491 days in a frontline position in Kharkiv region before being evacuated by drone, in what the article describes as the first such battlefield rescue. His account illustrates how surveillance drones and mined terrain can make evacuation extremely difficult, leaving wounded soldiers isolated for long periods.

Vlasenko and a fellow soldier initially sheltered in a concrete drainage pipe, then moved to an abandoned school and an iron furnace after flooding and attacks. His comrade was killed, and Vlasenko’s injuries and frostbite led him to amputate his own damaged leg. A modified bomber drone carried him 18 kilometres at 120 metres above the ground, escorted by three other drones; he is now recovering in hospital.