Ukrainian President Zelensky recently claimed that there have been cases in which Ukrainian ground robots and drones cooperated alone to conquer Russian positions and force Russian soldiers to surrender. This statement has not been independently verified, but if true, it will mark a war that has been profoundly rewritten by drones, an important step in the application of battlefield robots, and provide a realistic sample for how the militaries of various countries will use robots and drones to undertake the dirtiest and most dangerous tasks in the future.
The information released by Zelenskiy on social media was accompanied by a promotional video, in which he stated that various types of military robots of the Ukrainian army have performed more than 22,000 missions in the past three months. The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense also recently stated that the number of Ukrainian unmanned ground platform (UGV) missions has tripled in the past five months, with more than 9,000 robot missions completed in March this year alone. Compared with the past perception of aerial drones as a symbol of war, the rapid increase of ground robots is regarded as a new trend in the evolution of battlefield forms.
According to British media citing the 3rd Commando Brigade of the Ukrainian Army, the case mentioned by Zelensky may have occurred in Kharkiv Oblast in northeastern Ukraine last year. At that time, the brigade used aerial drones and "suicide" ground robots that integrated surveillance and attack to attack the solid fortifications built by the Russian army on the front line. The brigade said that after the position suffered severe attacks, some Russian soldiers finally chose to "raise their hands and surrender" to a Ukrainian robot, abandoning the position and being recorded by camera equipment.
Prior to this, images of individual or a small number of Russian soldiers surrendering to Ukrainian drones or even single robots have appeared in public videos many times. Therefore, the scenario of a small group of defenders collectively surrendering to robots in a disabled fortification is not completely unimaginable. A video recently released by United24, a platform run by the Ukrainian government, also showed similar (or possibly the same) combat operations, highlighting the battlefield performance of these robots on the front line and has become part of the official external propaganda.
The Ukrainian army's emphasis on robots is closely related to the current battlefield dominated by drones, which is extremely unfavorable to front-line infantry. The continuously circling reconnaissance and attack drones created a "kill zone" extending about 20 kilometers in the direction of the frontline advancement, forcing individual soldiers to lie down, hide, or use conditions such as night, heat-proof cloaks, and fog to move to avoid being exposed to aerial strikes. Multiple analyzes have pointed out that drones have now become the main source of battlefield casualties for both Russia and Ukraine. At the same time, the Ukrainian army is testing a new generation of military drones on the battlefield, integrating a higher degree of autonomous software and artificial intelligence capabilities on the aircraft, so that it can still rely on the airborne system to continue tracking and attacking targets after encountering strong electronic interference from the enemy and losing contact with ground operators.
In comparison, the total number of unmanned ground platforms in the Russia-Ukraine war is still far less than that of flying drones. Uzbekistan currently performs ground robot missions in units of "thousands" per month, while aerial drone missions have already reached "hundreds of thousands." However, the latest data shows that the Ukrainian army is deliberately accelerating the deployment of ground robots in non-combat and combat scenarios: on the one hand, they are used for frontline supply and casualty evacuation to reduce the exposure time of personnel in the "kill zone"; on the other hand, they are increasingly being used directly into combat, equipped with machine guns, grenade launchers, and even as mobile explosive devices, playing a role similar to a "suicide vehicle."
One of the representative platforms is the "Droid TW 12.7" tracked combat robot developed by the Ukrainian company DevDroid. According to the company's public information, the robot is equipped with an M2 Browning heavy machine gun and is installed on a remotely controllable turret. It has a maximum range of about 25 kilometers and a maximum traveling speed equivalent to the walking speed of an adult. Operators can maintain contact with the platform via radio and can also access the "Starlink" satellite communication service to enhance connectivity in the complex electromagnetic environment on the front line.
However, battlefield robots are not "invulnerable". A battalion deputy commander of the 38th Naval Infantry Brigade of the Ukrainian Army told the media that when trying to use robots to transport wounded, four of the five missions failed to reach the target location due to multiple factors including severe terrain damage, dense obstacles, enemy firepower and drone threats. In other words, even if the ground platform can replace some personnel exposure, its maneuverability and survival also face huge challenges in a frontline environment with dense craters, fortification debris and abandoned equipment.
Similar to drones, robots also face the test of communication link stability. Under the interference of enemy electronic warfare forces, signal loss and link interruption will directly affect its real-time remote control and data return effects. Some think tank analysis pointed out that while Ukraine is promoting the application of its own robots, it is also engaging in an "arms race" with the Russian army, which is also strengthening the application of robots. Throughout the past winter, the Russian military's investment in various ground unmanned systems on the front line has also shown a significant increase. The game between the two sides on unmanned and intelligent equipment is accelerating.
In the view of many military observers, the Ukrainian army's large-scale use of ground robots does not expect to gain a decisive "crushing advantage" by relying on the current generation of technology, but rather as a tool to reduce casualties and open up new tactical space in extremely harsh battlefield conditions. A commander of the 3rd Army of the Ukrainian Army once said that if the proportion of robots in the army can continue to be increased, the frontline strength of some infantry units is expected to be reduced by about 30% by the end of this year. If this goal is achieved, it will mean that the presence of robots on the battlefield has risen to a new level, and it will further promote the evolution of future wars in the direction of "human-machine hybrid" and "machine first".