A wounded Ukrainian soldier thought he was going to die. Then a drone pilot flew 'like a ninja' to airlift him out.

Ukrainian forces used the new StarGate drone to pull off two daring rescue missions in October. Courtesy of SkyFall Ukrainian forces used a specialized drone to carry out back-to-back rescue missions this month. The drone, called StarGate, is a heavy hexacopter that carries an enclosed stretcher underneath. Business Insider spoke with the pilot and one of the rescued soldiers about the mission. Izyum thought he was going to die. A devastating blast had taken part of the Ukrainian infantryman's left foot, and he had lost a lot of blood. To make matters worse, Russian soldiers were closing in on his position, and there was no easy escape. Then came a drone — a massive six-rotor aircraft with an enclosed stretcher underneath. It landed roughly 10 meters away from Izyum's position, in tall grass beside a minefield. Fiber-optic cables were strewn across the area, and he worried the hazards would prevent the rescue drone from taking off. Dizzy and nauseous, Izyum's comrades helped him over to the unusual aircraft. Summoning what little strength he had left, he hoisted himself into the stretcher capsule. As the drone lifted off, he breathed a little easier, at last feeling some sense of relief. Izyum is one of two Ukrainian soldiers who have been airlifted out of combat by the StarGate uncrewed aircraft, the first specialized drone for aerial evacuation, which was recently unveiled by Ukrainian company SkyFall. The wounded soldiers were medically evacuated this month in back-to-back rescue missions. Izyum and KVN, a drone pilot in Ukraine's 475th Separate Assault Regiment who flew StarGate during the rescues, described the missions to Business Insider in interviews this week. Both spoke through a translator and were identified only by their call signs for security reasons. Casualty evacuation by aerial drone is a new concept being pioneered in Ukraine. This month's rescue missions were among the first of their kind in combat. Skyfall, other defense industry officials, and soldiers say they expect to see more of these missions in the future and believe this experimental tactic is a critical capability, especially in moments when neither medical teams nor robots can reach wounded troops. Izyum being helped to the drone. Courtesy of SkyFall Right now, this approach is seen as a last resort — a break-glass option for when battlefield conditions prevent all other evacuation methods. A daring mission KVN's first daughter had just been born when the call came in. The 475th assault regiment, known as CODE 9.2, was preparing for a special operation, and leadership needed him to fly the main drone. A car was on its way to pick him up. He soon arrived at an undisclosed location in Ukraine for the operation, the rescue of a wounded soldier from the 129th Separate Heavy Mechanized Brigade. At the center of the operation was StarGate, a heavy hexacopter that SkyFall developed specifically for casualty evacuation purposes. The drone — which SkyFall said is the first of its kind — was unveiled in mid-October, only days before KVN's mission. Ukraine is increasingly turning to robots to evacuate wounded soldiers in combat. With surveillance and attack drones swarming the front lines, almost any movement carries tremendous risks, making it dangerous for teams to retrieve casualties. Ground robots are one solution, but tough terrain can limit where they can go. StarGate is a heavy hexacopter developed by SkyFall. Courtesy of SkyFall Heavy hexacopters have emerged as an option when other extraction methods are not possible. Earlier this month, Ukraine carried out its first casualty evacuation using an aerial drone, rescuing an infantryman from the 30th Separate Mechanized Brigade with a Heavy Shot Ayudag-6 heavy lift drone developed by Gurzuf Defence. There have since been two more missions. KVN was the pilot for both, flying Skyfall's StarGate drone. KVN recalled that his first evacuation happened at night. There were dozens of people — most of them from CODE 9.2, but some from other military units — involved in the rescue operation. The SkyFall team also participated in the planning. KVN was nervous. Reaching the casualty meant flying 20 miles out and back through areas flooded with Russian drones and electronic warfare that threatened to derail the mission. So the Ukrainians assembled something akin to a strike package, with more than a dozen drones flying alongside StarGate to protect it from attack, draw Russian attention away from the rescue, and bomb enemy positions near the evacuation point. The soldier rescued in the first mission, who goes by his call sign Kolobok, crawls to the drone. Courtesy of SkyFall Russian first-person-view (FPV) drones initially prevented the rescue drone from taking off with the wounded soldier, but eventually the skies cleared. KVN said his hands were shaking, but he relied on StarGate's built-in stabilization technology and his teammates' support to steady the drone and his nerves. The first