‘My biggest fear was being shot down’: how an injured Ukrainian soldier was evacuated by drone

Artem Lytvyn tells of complex and risky rescue operation after he spent eight days stricken in Kharkiv’s ‘kill zone’

Artem Lytvyn was crossing a field when the bang happened. Up ahead was a tree line. Not far beyond that the Russian border. The 25-year-old Ukrainian soldier had spent five days trekking to a dangerous forward position in the north-eastern Kharkiv region. Along the way he and six comrades dodged drones, and killed two Russians in a foxhole.

A few hundred metres short of his destination, he trod on a mine. “I didn’t hear anything. It was a magnet type. My rifle set it off,” Lytvyn said. He applied two tourniquets to his shattered right leg and pulled off his combat boot. Fellow soldiers dragged him and another wounded platoon member, Siava, into bushes. The same blast ripped off Siava’s leg. He died two days later.

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