'Grandma, hop on!' Robot rescues Ukrainian pensioner after she is spotted fleeing Russian shelling with her walking sticks

By PERKIN AMALARAJ, FOREIGN NEWS REPORTER Published: 15:36, 27 April 2026 | Updated: 15:48, 27 April 2026 A Ukrainian pensioner has been rescued by a robot after she was spotted fleeing Russian artillery with her walking sticks.  Drone footage showed the robot, which belonged to 60th Separate Mechanised Brigade, carrying the 77-year-old on its back.  She was spotted struggling to walk down the slippery road near the city of Lyman in the Donetsk region as she escaped shelling from Putin's forces.  One fighter said as they watched the live feed of the elderly woman trudging along slowly with nothing but the clothes on her back and a pair of walking canes: 'It looks like shortness of breath or something.'  The brigade then decided to dispatch the robot with a blanket and a note that read: 'Grandma, hop on!' As she climbed onboard the robot, fighters could be heard saying: 'Come on, come on, that's it!'  She rode on the robot for several hours. As she was assisted into the back of a military vehicle, one soldier was heard breathing a sigh of relief: 'That's it, we can all finally breathe... thank God.'  The 3rd Army Corps, which the 60th Brigade is part of, wrote on Telegram: 'With no hope of survival, she made her way past shell craters and the bodies of her fellow villagers until a robot came for her.' Drone footage showed the robot, which belonged to 60th Separate Mechanised Brigade, carrying the 77-year-old on its back She was rescued by the 60th Separate Mechanised Brigade The Ukrainian army said the elderly woman had lived in her now-decimated home in a village near the city of Lyman.  It urged people to 'evacuate in advance to preserve what matters most - life.' It comes as a Russian drone attack before dawn on Ukraine's southern city of Odesa wounded 14 people, including two children, authorities said Monday, in the latest barrage of civilian areas that have been a hallmark of Moscow's full-scale invasion. Meanwhile, a Ukrainian drone strike killed two people in the Russia-occupied part of Ukraine's southern Kherson region, Moscow-installed Gov. Vladimir Saldo said Monday. A man and a woman in their 70s died in the village of Dnipriany, he said. In Odesa, drones hit residential neighbourhoods and civilian infrastructure, said Serhii Lysak, the head of the city's administration.  Russia has repeatedly targeted Odesa, a key Black Sea port for Ukraine, since Moscow launched the war more than four years ago on February 24, 2022. Five of the wounded, most of them with shrapnel wounds, were hospitalised, according to Oleh Kiper, the head of the regional military administration. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Monday that Russia has fired approximately 1,900 attack drones, nearly 1,400 powerful guided aerial bombs and around 60 missiles of various types at Ukraine over the past week. Ukraine's wartime development of cutting-edge military technology means that it's intercepting more than 90% of the drones that Russia launches, Zelensky said in an X post. However, Ukraine needs more American-made Patriot air defence missiles, which are able to shoot down Russia's ballistic missiles. One fighter said as they watched the live feed of the elderly woman walking: 'It looks like shortness of breath or something' The drone arrived with a blanket and a note that read: 'Grandma, hop on!' Ukraine has recently been helping Middle Eastern and Gulf region countries, which are countering attacks on their territory by Iranian drones, with know-how during the Iran war. Norway is the latest European country to enter into a joint drone manufacturing agreement with Kyiv, Ukraine's Defence Ministry said Monday. In Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said that his government plans a 'drone armada' with Ukraine's help, to defend both itself and Europe. Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko, on a visit to Warsaw, said that Ukraine has evolved from being a recipient of foreign military aid to a country that can offer state of the art military solutions. 'We are able to destroy tanks, destroy expensive systems and drones, it is our reality,' she said, according to the Polish press agency PAP. 'A number of the systems that we're using are produced in Ukraine. I think we have made a big leap here.' Zelensky noted a recent raft of good news for Ukraine: NATO partners, excluding the United States, have contributed to a financial arrangement to buy American weapons, the European Union has approved a 90-billion-euro ($106-billion) loan to Ukraine, and the EU intends to place more sanctions on Moscow. Meanwhile, Ukraine has been assailing oil terminals and refineries deep inside Russia with long-range drones and missiles, aiming to disrupt Moscow's economy. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington-based think tank, said late Sunday it has seen geolocated evidence that Ukrainian forces conducted at least 10 strikes against Russian oil and gas infrastructure in the past two weeks. The comments below have not been moderated. The views expressed in the contents above are those of our users and do not necessarily reflect the views of MailOnline. By posting your comment you agree to our house rules. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual. Do you want to automatically post your MailOnline comments to your Facebook Timeline? Your comment will be posted to MailOnline as usual We will automatically post your comment and a link to the news story to your Facebook timeline at the same time it is posted on MailOnline. To do this we will link your MailOnline account with your Facebook account. 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