In video after video, a few of Ukraine’s hardest new recruits have proven their mettle: taking Russian troopers prisoner, evacuating wounded Ukrainian troops, and lugging provides below a sky buzzing with enemy drones. They concern neither destruction nor discomfort, and for sustenance, all they require is slightly juice.
These supersoldiers, in fact, aren’t human—they’re floor robots, sometimes four-wheeled platforms that look extra like agricultural instruments than Terminators. And whereas they is probably not a miracle weapon for ending the battle, they’re taking part in an more and more essential position because the embattled nation copes with deadly Russian drones and a vital scarcity of infantry.
“The numbers are rising—and we’re going to see that scale much more in 2026,” mentioned Rob Lee, a Eurasia professional on the Overseas Coverage Analysis Institute (FPRI).
Ukraine’s use of floor robots—also referred to as unmanned floor automobiles, or UGVs—is pushed by the primary main technological shift of the battle: the rise in 2022 of aerial drones, which kill by suicide strikes, dropping bombs, or streaming again footage to coordinate artillery fireplace.
Whereas Russia was at first slower than Ukraine to undertake aerial drones, it has since made up for misplaced time. Russian drones, piloted by elite new Russian items, have now turned an space stretching so far as 9 miles from the entrance line right into a kill zone.
“It’s hopeless to take an armored car and simply ship it to evacuate any infantry positions. You may be engaged on the way in which to that place, one hundred pc,” an unmanned programs commander within the Ukrainian navy’s twelfth Azov Brigade informed Overseas Coverage. The commander is recognized solely by his name signal, “Bood,” in response to Ukrainian navy protocol.
That’s a serious drawback for Ukrainian troopers eking out a dwelling in front-line trenches, the place a gentle provide of ammunition, meals, and water is important, as is the flexibility to evacuate wounded troopers. Russian drone assaults on Ukrainian logistics traces have been a part of how Russia made advances inside the metropolis of Pokrovsk final 12 months.
Enter the UGVs—which at a median value of lower than $20,000 every are far cheaper than an armored car and don’t danger the lifetime of a car crew. Because of using Starlink satellite tv for pc terminals for controlling them, operators can sit properly outdoors the vary of Russia’s drones as they ferry in provides, evacuate wounded troopers, and even go on the offensive themselves.
Ukraine’s use of floor robots, consequently, has swelled. As many as 12 brigades throughout Ukraine’s military recruit robotic operators, together with well-known items such because the third Assault Brigade, Khartiia Brigade, and 93rd Mechanized Brigade. In February, the tech-oriented new protection minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, celebrated greater than 7,000 floor robotic missions in a single month and that very same month set a objective of finally making robots transport all of Ukraine’s front-line provides.
To reply the demand, Ukraine has seen a increase in UGV manufacturing, with greater than 200 firms within the nation presently making floor robots. Probably the most distinguished, Tencore, grew from making just some robots within the midst of the battle, CEO Maksym Vasylchenko informed Overseas Coverage, to finally scoring funding from a Western funding agency concentrating on Ukraine’s protection sector.
Missions are nonetheless harmful—however for the robots, not the personnel. UGVs approaching infantry positions could solely survive one or two missions, in response to FPRI’s Lee. To extend the machines’ possibilities of survival, some items will use floor robots to relay cargo to heavy drone bomber items, which then fly the final step of the way in which to ship the provides, he added.
Operators should plan their routes rigorously to get by means of missions safely, mentioned Viktoriia Honcharuk, a former Ukrainian navy fight medic who’s now the director of protection tech on the Snake Island Institute, a Ukrainian assume tank. Bood, the unmanned programs commander, mentioned pilots take between 4 and 6 months of navy service to change into skilled operators. And missions could be grueling, with operators spending as much as 12 hours piloting the slow-moving drones whereas preserving a watch out for Russian threats, Lee mentioned.
The robots additionally want fixed updates. “A robotic that labored a month in the past could not work the subsequent,” mentioned Vasylchenko, citing modifications in Russian digital warfare, the widening of the kill zone, and different elements. As a way to adapt, many items will modify the robots as soon as they arrive at their bases, Honcharuk mentioned.
Robots are primarily used for logistics, Lee mentioned. Certainly, Bood informed Overseas Coverage that as a lot as 80 p.c of his battalion’s logistics wants at the moment are met by UGV programs delivering contemporary drones for aerial drone groups, ammunition, and meals.
Medical evacuation is the second-most frequent use, Lee mentioned: “A few of these items are saving various lives.”
Medical evacuations are far more difficult than merely carting round ammo and meals. For one, wounded troopers being transported within the robotic’s cargo maintain can get hypothermia in colder months, Bood mentioned. For medical evacuations, pilots will even preserve a vigilant eye out for enemy drones—together with by viewing intercepted Russian drone feeds with a view to see if they’re themselves being hunted, he added.
A extra area of interest, however creating, utility is utilizing robots for fight operations. Such robots can be utilized to put mines, fireplace machine weapons which might be mounted on them, and even assault Russian positions by crashing into them with explosives, much like what number of aerial assault drones work.
One in all Ukraine’s first broadly publicized use of such UGVs occurred close to the top of 2024, when the Khartiia Brigade launched a robot-only assault. Different brigades have equally embraced the expertise, with the third Military Corps launching a UGV strike firm, dubbed NC13.
Along with assaults, robots may also be used for protection—for instance, by monitoring recognized Russian infiltration routes and ambushing them, Bood mentioned.
“I feel 2026 goes to be the 12 months of [assault] UGV,” Honcharuk mentioned. “We’re going to see increasingly of this occurring in several brigades round Ukraine.”
Nonetheless, some points have to be ironed out. For one, the bigger the weapon that’s mounted on it, the extra a UGV stands out, Bood mentioned. “When you use a Browning M2, it’s very troublesome to masks it,” he mentioned, referring to the American-made .50-caliber heavy machine gun. Lee likewise pointed to numerous challenges in sustaining assault robots. For one, weapons similar to machine weapons can endure jams, whereas the robots themselves want batteries modified—issues {that a} robotic can not repair with out human help.
The programs are additionally comparatively costly in contrast with aerial drones, with the price of a single floor robotic platform equal to a number of aerial drones. “Some UGVs shall be $30,000 to $40,000, and you should buy 30 to 50 FPVs [first-person-view aerial drones] for that value,” Lee mentioned.
It’s a mirrored image of the truth that, for all of Ukraine’s technological advances, the battle continues to be outlined by the facility of low-cost killer drones. Bood, recalling a visit to the USA to view UGVs, mentioned the most affordable one obtainable had value $50,000.
“I mentioned, ‘They’re loopy.’ Perhaps the USA Military can afford such excessive costs—however it’s hopeless. It needs to be mass-produced and low cost.”
