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- Ukraine deploys robotic units to reduce frontline soldier exposure
- Ground robots now handle logistics and combat battlefield roles
- Commanders see machines replacing nearly a third of the infantry
More than four years into this grinding war, remote-controlled ground robots are fundamentally reshaping the battlefield.
Ukrainian commanders and engineers now assert that unmanned ground vehicles represent the next major phase of modern combat.
The future of warfare has already arrived, they argue, and it moves on tracks rather than legs.
A unit built around machines rather than men
Ukraine’s 3rd Separate Assault Brigade intends to replace roughly 30% of its infantry with Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs).
“The logic is simple: where the risk to a human is high, a robot should be used. Because the life of an infantryman is priceless, and robots don’t bleed,” Mykola Zinkevych, commander of the “NC13” Strike UGV Unit.
“We’re working toward a model where UGVs take on the most dangerous tasks, while infantry becomes a highly specialised force focused on what UGVs cannot perform.”
His unit now claims to be the world’s first strike UGV formation operating without any existing military doctrine.
Last year in the northeastern Kharkiv region, Ukrainian forces executed a mission using only drones and ground robots.
President Volodymyr Zelensky described how Russian occupiers surrendered during an operation that involved no infantry on the advance.
“The occupiers surrendered, and the operation was carried out without infantry and without losses on our side,” he claimed.
Logistics and firepower transformed
A modern infantryman can carry roughly 20kg of gear over distance, but logistics UGVs transport 200 to 600kg to frontline positions.
These machines deliver critical supplies, evacuate wounded troops, hold territorial positions, and destroy enemy shelters.
According to Ukraine’s military chiefs, the growing use of UGVs has already eased the infantry’s burden significantly.
“It’s easier to control an area for 24 hours when you are sitting in a safe zone 50km from the UGV, and you can swap with your team and another guy does it,” says Oleg Fedoryshyn, head of research and design at DevDroid.
The average UGV costs the Ukrainian military about $30,000, rising to $50,000 with a Browning machine gun mounted on top.
Commander Zinkevych estimates that his unit has carried out more than 100 strike operations using UGVs in recent months
“During these missions, we’ve destroyed enemy troops, shelters, command posts, and other high-value targets,” he says
Yet he warns that slowing the pace of development is something Ukraine simply cannot allow.
Around 10 to 15% of deployed robots are lost in battle, though many are later repaired and returned to service.
Ukrainian forces celebrate these machines as life-saving innovations, but there are concerns that remote warfare may unnecessarily aggravate the extent of the war.
“Where we have an instrument that serves toward the application of force, operated from a distance, there is a risk that the threshold to use force becomes lowered,” explained Professor Elke Schwarz, expert in military technologies at Queen Mary University.
“... and civilian populations are potentially at risk of bearing the brunt of the use of force.”
However, she concludes that Kyiv develops these tactics out of sheer necessity against an existential threat.
Whether robots ultimately spare lives or simply make war more sustainable remains an open question.
Via Independent
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