In the ‘kill zone’, Ukraine bets on flying evacuation drones

The StarGate aerial evacuation drone — made by Ukraine's SkyFall — during a flight at a training ground in an undisclosed location in Ukraine on Oct. 29 | AFP-JIJI

AFP-Jiji

Nov 15, 2026

Ukrainian soldier Yevgen had been stuck on the front line for two days, his foot torn off by a mine. Just as he was losing hope, a comrade told him salvation was coming from above: a flying evacuation drone.

“I said, ’you’re kidding, right? You’re just trying to cheer me up’,” he said.

Now recovering in a hospital bed, Yevgen — whose surname cannot be disclosed for security reasons — was one of the first Ukrainians to be evacuated by an aerial medical drone.

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