Company commander Vladyslav Polskyi, who single-handedly evacuated two wounded soldiers from kill zone, awarded Hero of Ukraine title
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine to Junior Lieutenant Vladyslav Polskyi, commander of an assault company in the 475th Code 9.2 Regiment, who single-handedly evacuated two wounded soldiers from the battlefield in the Kharkiv region.
The president signed the relevant decree on August 19, Censor.NET reports.
What happened on August 15
In a video address, Zelenskyy said that he had decided to honor Polskyi "for his swift and courageous response in a combat situation and for saving the lives of our soldiers."
"This undoubtedly heroic event took place on August 15: Vladyslav used a pickup truck to rescue two men from a Russian drone strike zone. Our soldiers were carrying out a combat mission and were wounded. They were being evacuated using an unmanned ground vehicle. The Russians struck the UGV. To save the men’s lives and avoid losing time, Vladyslav Polskyi decided to act and picked them up in a pickup truck," the president said, calling his actions an example of leadership worthy of emulation.
Who is Vladyslav Polskyi?
Polskyi commands an assault company in the 475th Code 9.2 Regiment. In an interview with LB.ua, he said that the rescued soldiers were not from his company. However, he explained how units cooperate: commanders may evacuate soldiers from other companies, just as other commanders will retrieve their personnel, because "no one is a stranger."
Why he went without body armor
Explaining his decision to act without body armor, Polskyi said that he chose to sacrifice protection for mobility. According to him, he had been monitoring the situation for some time and had not seen any enemy reconnaissance assets or strike systems nearby, so he concluded that speed was more important than armor protection.
"I understood that if something struck us, the body armor would not help me much. But it would slow me down. I was able to jump out of the pickup faster, drag them over faster, jump back in and immediately pull out. It took me no more than a minute; it would not have been so easy with body armor," the serviceman explained. He added that he had seen comments describing his decision as reckless, but at the time of the operation he considered speed the priority.
- Earlier, the assault company commander of the 475th Separate Assault Regiment rushed without body armor to rescue two wounded soldiers under enemy drones.
