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.”JOIN US ON TELEGRAMFollow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official. 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.