Near the frontlines in eastern Ukraine, Russian drones have changed everything — including how medics save lives. For generations, military medicine relied on the “golden hour,” the 60-minute window to evacuate a wounded soldier to advanced care. In Ukraine, that hour has vanished.

Russian surveillance and attack drones make fast evacuations nearly impossible, forcing Ukraine’s Azov Brigade medics to improvise. Some solutions verge on science fiction: drones that deliver blood for transfusions directly into trenches, or repurposed SUVs turned into armored, high-speed ambulances.

Azov’s medical officer, call sign Rina, recalled a soldier hit in the neck by shrapnel who survived after a drone delivered blood for a trench transfusion. “We have dozens of casualties whose limbs were saved by

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