Four years ago, Vladyslav Polskyi was a schoolteacher in Zaporizhzhia. Today, the 29-year-old assault company commander has been named a Hero of Ukraine after racing an unarmored pickup into an area hunted by Russian drones to rescue two seriously wounded soldiers.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on Wednesday, Aug. 19, awarding Polskyi, a junior lieutenant and commander in the 475th Separate Assault Regiment “CODE 9.2,” the title Hero of Ukraine with the Order of the Gold Star – the country’s highest state distinction. His military call sign is fittingly “Teacher.”
The award followed a dramatic Aug. 15 rescue in the Derhachi–Kozacha Lopan area of the Kharkiv region.
Two Ukrainian soldiers had successfully carried out a combat mission when Russian drones detected and attacked them, leaving both seriously wounded. Ukrainian troops sent a ground robotic system to evacuate them without exposing more soldiers to Russian fire.
But as the wounded men prepared to leave, a Russian FPV drone struck the robotic vehicle and disabled it.
The two soldiers were left in open terrain, where another Russian strike could come at any moment.
Polskyi decided not to wait.
He got into a pickup truck and drove out personally to retrieve them.
In an interview with Ukrainian outlet LB.ua, Polskyi said he had been monitoring Russian drone activity and believed there was a narrow window in which the rescue could be attempted. He even decided to leave his body armor behind, calculating that mobility and speed would give him a better chance of reaching the wounded men and getting them out.
At one point, he said, the pickup reached around 160 kilometers per hour – roughly 100 mph – as he raced across the battlefield.
When Polskyi reached the disabled robotic vehicle, he transferred the wounded soldiers into his pickup. As a trained combat medic, he knew how to handle men suffering severe wounds and possible disorientation.
The entire loading process took less than a minute.
Then came another warning.
As Polskyi pulled away, Ukrainian personnel monitoring the battlefield told him a Russian Molniya drone was approaching and an enemy FPV drone was being launched.
Another 10 or 15 minutes, Polskyi later said, and the outcome could have been very different. Both wounded soldiers survived the evacuation.
Zelensky highlighted the rescue in his evening address Wednesday, calling it an example of how a commander should act.
The president praised Polskyi’s speed and courage in deciding to go after the soldiers himself when the robotic evacuation failed.
“Great courage,” Zelensky said, describing his actions as an example “worth following.”
“People must be taken care of. Thank you, Vladyslav,” he added.
From schoolteacher to assault commander
Polskyi’s path to the battlefield began in a classroom.
Before Russia’s full-scale invasion transformed his life, he worked as a teacher at a school in Zaporizhzhia. In 2022, with Russian forces advancing in his home region, he stayed long enough to take his pupils through the end of their school year and then went to a military recruitment office to volunteer.
Because he was then below the age threshold for mobilization, Polskyi signed a military contract instead.
His original plan was to serve in artillery.
Instead, he was sent to the infantry as a rifleman.
After being wounded, Polskyi was transferred to an evacuation group, where he spent around six months working with battlefield casualties and medicine. He underwent further training, became a combat medic, then rose from squad commander to platoon commander and eventually to command of an assault company.
Polskyi told LB.ua that the two wounded men he went to save were not even members of his own company. In an assault regiment, he said, commanders may guide or evacuate troops belonging to other companies just as other commanders may look after their soldiers.
There are no strangers on the battlefield, he said.
Polskyi also rejected the idea that his decision was simply a reckless impulse. He said he had watched the battlefield, assessed the risks and concluded that there was a small but real opportunity to reach the men before Russian drones returned.
Asked whether he would do it again, his answer was clear: he would.
The presidential decree awards Polskyi the Hero of Ukraine title for “personal courage and heroism” demonstrated in defending Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and for his service to the Ukrainian people.