Kostiantyn Vlasenko

Kostiantyn Vlasenko is a Ukrainian infantryman whose 491-day stand at a frontline position on the Kupyansk front became an international news event in October 2026. He is 49 years old. He held the position known in Ukrainian reporting as "Vertun" largely alone, surrounded by Russian forces in a drone-saturated killzone, and lost both feet during the ordeal, amputating one of them himself.

His evacuation by a modified "Gurzuf Defense" hexacopter was reported by Ukrainian commanders as the first known aerial drone rescue of a wounded soldier, and the story was carried by Reuters, The Independent, the New York Post, the Daily Mail and Meduza within days. Vlasenko is not a public figure in any conventional sense; he is a soldier whose survival under conditions that most accounts treat as unsurvivable made him briefly the most discussed Ukrainian infantryman in the world. [edit]

The available record of Vlasenko's life before the war is thin. No retrieved source gives his place of birth, his birth name in full, his education, his hometown or his civilian occupation before mobilisation. Outlets describe him by his military role and by the position he held rather than by biography, and follow-up interviews that might fill those gaps are not in the search set.

What is documented is the position itself. Ukrainian reporting refers to it as "Vertun," on the Kupyansk front in the Kharkiv region. Vlasenko held it for 491 days, roughly 70 weeks, largely alone and encircled by Russian forces in terrain so saturated with drones that evacuation was impossible for most of that time. The Daily Mail described him as stranded and injured for the duration.

During the hold he developed frostbite and gangrene in his left foot. With no medical evacuation available and the infection threatening to spread, he amputated his own right foot to stop it. Reporting varies on which foot was lost to frostbite and which he cut off himself. The New York Post says he lost one foot to frostbite and then cut off the other; other accounts say gangrene took the left foot and he removed the right. The consistent facts are that he lost both feet and performed at least one amputation on himself. [edit]

Vlasenko's public record is a single arc rather than a career. It ends, in news terms, on the Kupyansk front in late October 2026, when a modified "Gurzuf Defense" hexacopter extracted him from the position he had held for 491 days. Ukrainian commanders described it as the first known aerial drone rescue of a wounded soldier, and NV reported it as Ukraine's first drone evacuation of a wounded soldier on that front.

Coverage moved quickly. Censor.net and NV reported the 491-day stand and the evacuation on 20 October 2026. The New York Post, The Independent and the Daily Mail followed on 21 October, and the Daily Mail ran a print feature on 22 October under the line that it was a war story no Hollywood scriptwriter could make up. Reuters published a dedicated multimedia graphic and wire coverage on 23 October, with Meduza, Arise, GB News and News.az following the same day.

The Sun framed him as the first soldier evacuated by aerial drone in the history of warfare after surviving nearly 500 days. The drone model is reported by United24 Media and should be treated as single-source until corroborated. No military or civilian awards for his conduct appear in the retrieved coverage. [edit]

Media portray Vlasenko as a symbol of endurance and improvisation under fire. Headlines leaned on three phrases: cut off his own leg, survived 491 days, first drone rescue in history. The tone across the tabloids and broadsheets was heroic and slightly awed. The Daily Mail's framing, that it was a story no Hollywood scriptwriter could make up, set the register for much of the coverage.

He has no personal media presence in the record. The image is entirely constructed by news outlets from the facts of the position, the amputation and the drone extraction, and it is a martial image rather than a celebrity one. [edit]

iFANN has not collected fame data for Kostiantyn Vlasenko, and he holds no placement in the current published rankings. His prominence is a news phenomenon rather than a measured fame ranking: for several days in late October 2026 his name appeared in Reuters, The Independent, the New York Post, the Daily Mail, Meduza, GB News, Arise TV, Global News, CGTN and The Epoch Times, and the story circulated through Reddit's r/ukraine and through the social accounts of those outlets.

There is no fandom name, no organised fanbase and no fan campaigns. Public reaction took the form of news virality and commentary, including amplification on X and Instagram posts calling it the kind of extraordinary story that could inspire a Hollywood film. Readers followed the story because the facts were extreme and verified, not because they followed him. [edit]

The number that recurs across outlets is 491 days, which the Daily Mail rendered as roughly 70 straight weeks. The Sun rounded it to nearly 500. The "Vertun" position is named in Ukrainian reporting but the origin of the name is not explained in the coverage.

The rescue vehicle was a modified "Gurzuf Defense" hexacopter, according to United24 Media, a detail not yet corroborated by a second outlet. Reuters treated the rescue as significant enough to build a dedicated multimedia graphic around it, which is unusual for a single-soldier evacuation story.

Reporting disagrees on which foot was lost to frostbite and which Vlasenko amputated himself. The New York Post says frostbite took one and he cut off the other; other accounts say gangrene destroyed the left and he removed the right. The story spread through newsrooms' social accounts, including Reuters, CGTN and The Epoch Times, and through Reddit's r/ukraine, rather than through any account of his own. [edit]

No credible source in the retrieved coverage reports Vlasenko's parents, siblings, spouse, children or household. Outlets have not published family information about him, and the search set contains no interview in which he discusses his personal life. His family circumstances at the time of his evacuation are therefore not part of the public record. [edit]

Vlasenko's story is associated with the Kupyansk front in the Kharkiv region, the "Vertun" position he held, and the "Gurzuf Defense" hexacopter that evacuated him. In coverage terms it is tied to Reuters, which built a multimedia graphic around the rescue, and to the Ukrainian outlets Censor.net and NV, which reported it first. [edit]

No credible source in the retrieved coverage reports any romantic relationship, marriage, divorce, children or dating history for Vlasenko. He is a war-survival news subject rather than a celebrity, and outlets have not published personal-relationship information about him. As of the most recent reporting in October 2026, his relationship status is not part of the public record. [edit]

No net worth figure exists for Kostiantyn Vlasenko in any retrieved source. Celebrity net worth sites do not cover him, no financial reporting is present in the coverage, and any number would be fabricated. iFANN does not publish an estimate for him. [edit]