@c5news: “Tears were flowing, but I had to cut it.” A Ukrainian infantryman who became the first to be airlifted from battle by drone has revealed he cut his own leg off in an epic survival story. Konstantin Vlasenko reportedly endured 491 days in the Killzone, first hiding in a cramped concrete pipeline with a comrade, ‘Baski’ as swarms of Russian drones prevented their rescue. When a pipe flooded last winter, the pair hid in an abandoned school before Baski was killed on his 50th birthday. Unable to walk due to blast wounds, Mr Vlasenko crawled inside a cast-iron furnace to protect himself from drones. There he stayed for eight months, sustained by supplies sent to him by the army and his wife. First, his frostbitten left foot rotted off, then he decided to cut off his damaged right leg, placing it over a brick and using a knife to cut through the tissue: “Tears were flowing, but I had to cut it,” he is reported as saying since his rescue. Mr Vlasenko was surrounded by enemy drones in eastern Ukraine, so commanders decided to attempt the world’s first aerial drone evacuation, which was a success. In an interview with Ukrainian journalist Yuriy Butusov, Mr Vlasenko described his rescue as “a miracle” saying, “I have no words”. #5news #ukraine

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Wednesday 21 October 2026 10:14:39 GMT