The increased emphasis on battlefield robots coincides with flying drones having made the modern battlefield exceptionally deadly for human soldiers. Persistent drone surveillance and drone strikes have created a “kill zone” stretching 12 miles (20 kilometers) beyond the frontline positions as of February 2026, forcing individual soldiers to hunker down or rely on nighttime darkness, anti-thermal cloaks, or foggy conditions to move about without risking a drone strike. Such drones are now inflicting the majority of battlefield casualties on both sides as the full-scale war enters its fifth year. The latest military drones being tested by Ukraine in combat are integrating autonomous, onboard software and AI-powered capabilities to track and strike targets even if they lose communication with human operators because of enemy jamming.
Robots reporting for duty
By comparison, ground robot usage in the Russo-Ukrainian war has been relatively modest, with Ukraine reporting thousands of ground robot missions per month versus hundreds of thousands of drone sorties per month. Yet the latest numbers suggest the Ukrainian military has stepped up its effort to deploy more robots for supply runs and medical evacuations, which can reduce human exposure to drone threats. Ukraine has also increasingly deployed such robots in combat roles, armed with machine guns and grenade launchers or sometimes equipped to explode like roving bombs.
One example of such robots is the Droid TW 12.7 developed by the Ukrainian company DevDroid. The company’s marketing material describes the tracked robot as being armed with an M2 Browning machine gun mounted on a remotely controlled turret and capable of traveling up to 15 miles (25 kilometers) at a top speed equivalent to an adult’s walking pace. The human operator can communicate with the robot via radio, and the robot can also incorporate Starlink’s satellite service.
