Robots are redefining the war in Ukraine

Ukraine, suffering for months from manpower crises and uncertain backing from the United States, has undergone a remarkable evolution. Large parts of its war effort are now unmanned, the robots, drones, and remotely piloted tanks giving it a sudden, albeit fragile, edge over a lumbering and strained Russian invader. In April, President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed the first capture of a Russian position purely by robots and drones and added that since January unmanned machines had conducted 22,000 missions.

Russian prisoners of war that their enemy calls these robots – each carrying a huge payload of explosive on a four-wheel chassis – “silent death.” They can only hear their approach when they are 10 meters away – well within their blast radius. The calculations here are simple: over 164 assaults, the “NC13” unit of the Third Assault Brigade has calculated they would have needed 2,300 troops for the same effect as their robot attackers. They would expect to have lost half their unit – dead or wounded – in the attacks, meaning the unmanned, doddering bombs on the screen in front of them are a technological advance that has saved a thousand Ukrainians.

The Ukrainian approach is born of a manpower crisis, where a smaller population has been ravaged by a devastating toll from four years of Russian invasion. But Kyiv’s early embrace of drones, and the mass-industrialization of their accuracy and power, has begun to exact a defining toll on Moscow. he speed and scope of Ukraine’s automation is staggering. In a matter of months, unmanned vehicles have gone from rare frontline curiosities to standard issue. Robots that rescue the wounded, or resupply frontline troops. Machines are omnipresent, and are redefining this war.