Ukraine's military to roll out units of robotic vehicles

By Max Hunder

KYIV (Reuters) - Ukraine's military will create robotic vehicle units to deploy at the front, the defence minister said on Wednesday, as Kyiv and Moscow vie to gain a technological advantage over their enemy after nearly three years of vicious fighting.

The ministry published a photograph of a robotic vehicle with a gun mounted on it as it made the announcement on the Telegram messenger. Unmanned vehicles - in particular aerial ones - have become a key type of weapon in the war since Russia invaded in 2022.

With both sides deploying tens of thousands of drones each month in the air, a race is now on to replace as many soldiers on the ground as possible with Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs), officials say, with Ukrainian manpower reserves running short.

"The Ministry of Defence is launching a project that will scale up the use of unmanned ground systems in the military," a statement from Defence Minister Rustem Umerov published by the defence ministry said.

It added that the project was based on trials conducted in co-operation with soldiers since the summer of 2024.

Digital Transformation Minister Mykhailo Fedorov told Reuters in December that Ukraine would need tens of thousands of uncrewed robotic ground vehicles this year.

Units on both sides of the war have already been using UGVs, usually controlled remotely by a pilot through a camera feed.

The defence minister said robot vehicles would be used for offence, defence, logistics, evacuating casualties and laying or clearing mines.

"Our goal is to create a military where innovative technologies help perform the most dangerous tasks, saving the lives of our defenders."

(Reporting by Max Hunder; editing by Tom Balmforth and Alex Richardson)