Land robots still seem slow and cumbersome. But they are already taking on more and more tasks at the front. Our war reporter visited a Ukrainian unit that builds and uses the machines.
May 17, 2026, 6:14 p.mMay 17, 2026, 6:14 p.m
Kurt Pelda, Donbass / ch media
We drive to the robot technicians’ workshop through a network tunnel that is intended to protect against Russian kamikaze drones. The rumble of artillery can be heard in the distance.
A Ukrainian combat robot at a demonstration.Image: www.imago-images.de
We were about 40 kilometers from the front when we met the chief of technicians, whose nickname was “Leonardo”. He leads us to a garage that has been converted into a secret production facility. We are not allowed to take photographs there.
The term “robot” comes from Slavic words such as “robota” or “rabota” (Ukrainian or Russian for “work”). Robots are work machines that are intended to replace people. The Ukrainian army is suffering from an acute shortage of personnel.
The dead zone forces innovation
This is the main reason why it has recently been the Ukrainians and not the Russians who have been driving forward the development of ground drones. But it was the Russians who used unmanned tracked vehicles for mine clearance as early as 2022. This should save people from exposing themselves to the risk of mines.
What types of work can Leonardo’s robots or ground drones do? What is particularly in demand are the transport of supplies to frontline positions, the evacuation of the wounded and the laying of anti-tank mines or infantry obstacles made of razor blade wire. There are also kamikaze operations with vehicles loaded with explosives and combat missions by ground drones on which heavy machine guns have been mounted.
Combat robots are usually used in conjunction with flying drones.Image: www.imago-images.de
The driving force behind innovation is not only the lack of personnel, but also the expanding “death zone” near the front. Thanks in part to better batteries, aerial drones can cover ever greater distances and attack vehicles far from the main battle line. Remote-controlled ground drones therefore carry out tasks in the death zone that were previously intended for soldiers.
300 ground drone manufacturers
“Many of our ground drones are destroyed by Russian drones,” says Leonardo, “but this means we are saving our workforce.” And the simplest versions of unmanned vehicles cost the equivalent of just 500 francs. Ukrainian land robots are now used in almost 10,000 frontline missions per month – and the trend is rising.
In fact, important supply routes such as the road to the city of Kostiantinivka in Donetsk Oblast, which is under heavy Russian pressure, are lined with wreckage of ground drones. The network tunnels here have long since been destroyed by artillery fire or wind and weather. This means there is practically no protection against attacking quadcopters.
It’s noisy in Leonardo’s garage. Welding is taking place and a grinding machine is emitting sparks. The men are currently assembling a chassis of a four-wheeled robot. There are now around 300 different manufacturers of ground drones in Ukraine.
Leonardo sometimes sources electronic components from such companies, but prefers to produce the unmanned vehicles itself. “This means we can incorporate our frontline experience directly into the construction of the next robots.”
Artificial intelligence is becoming increasingly important
This is what happened, for example, with tracked vehicles that lay mines or are armed with heavy machine guns. “If mud builds up between the tires and the body of a car, you just get out and clean the whole thing,” Leonardo continues. “But that’s not possible with a land robot. And chain drives are particularly susceptible to contamination.” That’s why Leonardo’s soldiers now almost only produce drones with wheels.
But there are problems with this too: Many producers use air-filled tires that become punctured at the slightest bombardment. A flat tire in the death zone usually means the end of the drone; and then the robot’s task – for example, supplying frontline soldiers with drinking water – remains unfulfilled.
Where it is too dangerous for people, ground drones can block roads and paths with anti-tank mines.Image: www.imago-images.de
To avoid this, Leonardo’s unit installs solid rubber tires that it purchases from an agricultural vehicle manufacturer. A lot of mechanical problems also have to be solved with combat robots: The weapon, usually a machine gun or a small grenade launcher, must be able to rotate quickly and precisely in the desired direction on a turret. The built-in cameras help the pilot to observe the battlefield. In some versions, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), the shooter is supported by automatic target recognition.
The pilot can position his combat robot at the edge of the forest and assign the AI to a specific sector. If the computer detects a potential target, the pilot is warned. In certain cases, it is also possible to order the AI to engage any target in a predetermined area.
18 screens in the command post
Last year, Ukrainian media reported on a ground drone that defended a position against Russian attacks for 45 days. In between, the robot only had to be re-armed, serviced and equipped with fresh batteries. In another case, Russians surrendered to ground robots and aerial drones in the summer of 2025 after their bunkered position was attacked by unmanned kamikaze vehicles.
The ground drones are very slow at 7 to 15 kilometers per hour, but thanks to an explosive charge of around 30 kilograms they have a devastating effect when they drive into a house or bunker and explode. During such attacks, pilots of ground and aerial drones work closely together.
This collaboration can also be seen in the command post of Leonardo’s battalion. There are a total of 18 screens in two darkened rooms. Pilots of ground drones sit at a desk. You can see the machine gun barrels of the robots on their monitors.
At another table, a fat soldier stares at the videos that are projected onto the screen in real time via a Starlink connection from the cameras of Ukrainian flying drones. The man can also watch a map showing the front line of the region on a second monitor. You can also see Ukrainian reconnaissance drones that are currently scouting out Russian positions.
Antennas detect Russian drone videos
Because the unit has a lot of well-hidden reception antennas near the front, the fat soldier repeatedly sees intercepted video images from Russian combat drones. These videos are saved so that the flight path of the drones can be reconstructed afterwards. Leonardo uses the information gained in this way to find routes for his land robots that are frequented as little as possible by Russian drones.
A few kilometers from the rear command post, Leonardo’s soldiers are practicing with ground and aerial drones. A land robot controlled via satellite is supposed to bring an electricity generator and fuel to a well-camouflaged position in the forest. A reconnaissance drone and two combat quadcopters simultaneously try to locate and attack the ground drone. The pilot of the land robot therefore repeatedly drives into the bushes to seek protection from the attackers in the air.
They then have difficulty finding the vehicle under the canopy of leaves. However, the land robot quickly gets tangled in the branches or threatens to tip over. Meanwhile, two combat robots jerk across an empty field. The whole thing still seems a bit cumbersome, but it’s easy to see that unmanned vehicles will play an important role in future wars. (aargauerzeitung.ch)