Ukraine’s military robot surge aims to offset drone risks to humans - Ars Technica

Overview

Ukraine’s military robot surge aims to offset drone risks to humans

Ukraine is replacing more soldiers with robots in the battlefield kill zone.

Details

Ukrainian ground robots and drones have demonstrated how to overcome a Russian military position by themselves while forcing the surrender of Russian soldiers, claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. If true, that would represent a significant robotic milestone during the ongoing war that has already been significantly reshaped by drones—and it could offer lessons for how militaries worldwide may use robots and drones to do the dirtiest and most dangerous jobs in future conflicts.

The claim by Zelenskyy has not been independently verified but was accompanied by a promotional video in which he described Ukraine’s military robots as having completed over 22,000 missions in the last three months. Ukraine’s defense ministry also recently described a threefold increase in the Ukrainian military’s uncrewed ground vehicle missions over the last five months, with more than 9,000 robotic missions conducted in March, according to Scripps News. The growing robotic ground presence represents a new trend in a war that has become synonymous with drones.

Zelenskyy’s statement may refer to an event that occurred in the Kharkiv oblast in northeastern Ukraine last year, according to The Independent. It referenced a statement by the Ukrainian 3rd Separate Assault Brigade detailing how the unit had used flying drones and “kamikaze” ground robots to attack fortified Russian frontline positions at that time. The brigade’s statement also described Russian soldiers as surrendering to one of the unit’s robots after abandoning the battered fortifications. There are previous examples of individual or small groups of Russian soldiers surrendering to Ukrainian drones while being recorded on video, so the idea of a group of Russian soldiers surrendering their position and themselves to a robot is not necessarily far-fetched. The battlefield exploits of such robots were also featured in a recent video by the Ukrainian government-run platform United 24, which described a similar or possibly the same incident involving the same brigade.

The increased emphasis on battlefield robots coincides with flying drones making the modern battlefield exceptionally deadly for human soldiers. Beyond running reconnaissance missions to help spot enemies and coordinate artillery strikes, Ukrainian drone operators have harnessed FPV (first-person view) quadcopter drones as miniature flying bombs that dive at armored vehicles or even individual soldiers before exploding. With the Russian military also widely using such “kamikaze” drones, these weapons are now inflicting the majority of battlefield casualties as the full-scale war enters its fifth year.

Persistent surveillance from drones has created “kill zones” stretching 12 miles (20 kilometers) on both sides of the frontline positions, forcing individual soldiers to hunker down or rely on nighttime darkness, anti-thermal cloaks, or foggy conditions to move about without risking a drone strike. The latest military drones being tested by Ukraine in combat are integrating autonomous onboard software and AI-powered capabilities to track and strike targets even if they lose communication with human operators due to enemy jamming.

Russia and Ukraine have also used long-range aerial drones to inflict damage on cities and infrastructure thousands of kilometers from the frontlines, with one of the most well-known examples being Russia’s use of Iranian-made Shahed drones. Russia has even deployed short-range drones to directly target Ukrainian civilians. Meanwhile, Ukraine has struck back with its own long-range drones, targeting Russian energy infrastructure and port facilities. And Ukraine’s use of uncrewed sea drones has helped neutralize conventional Russian naval superiority in the Black Sea and beyond—a trend that has also been seen in Iranian and Houthi sea drone attacks on commercial shipping in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.

By comparison, ground robot usage in the Russo-Ukrainian war has been relatively modest, with Ukraine reporting thousands of ground robot missions per month versus hundreds of thousands of drone sorties per month. Yet the latest numbers suggest the Ukrainian military has stepped up its effort to deploy more robots for supply runs and medical evacuations, which can reduce human exposure to drone threats. Ukraine has also increasingly deployed such robots in combat roles, armed with machine guns and grenade launchers or sometimes equipped to explode like roving bombs.

But military robots can still fall prey to enemy drones and also face challenges in traversing battle-scarred landscapes. A deputy battalion commander of Ukraine’s 38th Marine Brigade told The Kyiv Independent that robots attempting to evacuate wounded soldiers failed to reach the positions in four out of five cases due to such complicating factors.

Like drones, robots can also face communication challenges from signal loss and enemy electronic warfare, according to the Lowy Institute. And Ukraine’s robotic efforts are in competition with the Russian military, which has similarly increased its use of robots on the frontlines over the winter of 2025–2026.

The ground robot surge can be seen as the latest response to the increased lethality of modern warfare dominated by drones. So current-generation robots may not deliver a decisive technological edge so much as provide another way for military commanders to mitigate modern battlefield risks for human soldiers. That mentality is exemplified by the commander of Ukraine’s 3rd Army Corps suggesting that military units incorporating more robots could reduce their infantry ranks by up to 30 percent by the end of this year. If Ukraine succeeds in that goal, it would mark another notable step for the growing robotic presence on the battlefield.

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Key Takeaways

• Ukraine’s military robot surge aims to offset drone risks to humans

• Ukraine is replacing more soldiers with robots in the battlefield kill zone

• Ukrainian ground robots and drones have demonstrated how to overcome a Russian military position by themselves while forcing the surrender of Russian soldiers, claimed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy

• The claim by Zelenskyy has not been independently verified but was accompanied by a promotional video in which he described Ukraine’s military robots as having completed over 22,000 missions in the last three months

• Zelenskyy’s statement may refer to an event that occurred in the Kharkiv oblast in northeastern Ukraine last year, according to The Independent