Robots are redefining the war in Ukraine – and forcing Russia onto the back foot

 

Technology is giving an advantage to Ukraine against a bigger enemy.

CNN

Eastern Ukraine —  

There is a whirr, a flurry of dust, a pause as the grainy image recalibrates, and then a devastating blast.

Underground, dozens of miles away, veterans of the most brutal urban battles in Ukraine, of Avdiivka and Bakhmut, are commanders in a new kind of killing - one they cannot feel, smell or see up close. An entire mission directing six blasts against three Russian frontline targets in eastern Ukraine will involve no Ukrainian troops on the ground, the battle instead directed from gamer chairs, observed from reconnaissance drones above, run over dedicated livestreams.

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.

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Survival is the mother of invention, under the orange glow of computer processor fans and subtle overhead lighting. The unit here has learned from 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.