Ukrainian commander Vladyslav Polskyi knew he had to do something when he saw two wounded fighters stranded on the battlefield — one of them still strapped to a land drone immobilized by a Russian strike.

A former science teacher who joined the army in 2023, the 29-year-old was watching the soldiers on a screen in his command post around 15 km away.

Between them stretched the “kill zone”, riddled with mines and swarmed by aerial drones ready to attack anything that moved.

Polskyi, whose military call-sign is “Teacher”, hopped into his grey pick-up truck and raced past scorched fields and the charred husks of other vehicles left on the battlefield of northern Ukraine. He had no helmet or body armour.

“If it had happened to me, I would’ve wanted them to come take me away, and not just leave me there,” the junior lieutenant told Reuters, recalling his August 15 mission to save both men, who were members of another battalion.

His feat captured the country’s attention and earned him its highest military honour, Hero of Ukraine, days later. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy presented him with the award at Independence Day celebrations in Kyiv on Monday.

“People must be taken care of. Thank you, Vladyslav!” Zelenskiy said, announcing the award.

Stranded drone showed limits of battlefield tech

Speaking to Reuters less than a week after the operation, Polskyi described speeding toward the men while planning how he would load them onto the flatbed of the truck.

The two Ukrainian soldiers had been wounded during a combat mission in the Kharkiv region and were being evacuated atop an unmanned ground vehicle when it was struck by one of Russia’s small, agile helicopter drones loaded with explosives.

Kyiv’s forces have been using remote-controlled unmanned vehicles to help limit human involvement in dangerous tasks like evacuations inside the “kill zone”, seeking an edge against Moscow’s bigger army.

Russia’s successful attack cast light on the limits of the relatively slow and rudimentary vehicles. The Russian drone knocked out the land drone’s Starlink terminal, severing the link with its pilot and leaving it immobilized.

One of the wounded soldiers had managed to crawl into a ditch off the road and hide in the vegetation; the other lay helpless on the four-wheeled vehicle under an open sky, his right foot dangling from the bone.

Ukraine has also made widespread use of attack drones on the battlefield, and says it is killing or wounding around 30,000 Russian soldiers a month – a figure Moscow dismisses as exaggerated.

Both sides frequently post videos of drones hunting down each other’s soldiers in the “kill zone”.

Surveillance drone footage, obtained exclusively by Reuters from Polskyi’s unit, the 475th Assault Regiment, shows his truck hurtling down a gravel road before turning and rapidly reversing toward the damaged drone.

Reuters was able to verify the exact location of the rescue using the full-length footage. However, the regiment asked not to disclose where it took place for security reasons.

At another nearby command post, drone-platoon leader “Malyi” watched as the rescue played out on screens in real time.

“Everyone in the command centre was shocked,” said the 22-year-old, who asked to be identified by his call-sign. Just a single Russian drone or land mine could have killed all three men, he added.

Polskyi — dressed in T-shirt and shorts — hoisted both men onto his truck and raced home, managing to evade the flying Russian drones that had been detected heading toward their new target.

Looking back, he remembered the fear in the men’s eyes. He was afraid too. “But you need to know how to control it,” he said.