A Ukrainian engineer tests a drone. Ukraine 2025.Image: Keystone
A Ukrainian unit used fully autonomous drones to kill Russian soldiers and destroy a truck. The test took place two years ago.
June 11, 2026, 12:20 p.mJune 11, 2026, 12:27 p.m
It is a worrying historical moment – but it was only a matter of time before it happened: for the first time in human history, drones are said to have autonomously identified enemy soldiers as opponents without human intervention and killed them on the battlefield after making an independent decision.
An unspecified Ukrainian unit carried out the test two years ago in the Bakhmut and Chasiv Yar region. Drone entrepreneur Alexander Kokhanovskyy reported this to the traditional British science magazine at a press event a few days ago in the Ukrainian embassy in London.New Scientist».
According to his own statements, Kokhanovskyy provided the technology for this, but continued to explain that it was just one attempt. The capabilities were never “further implemented on a larger scale.” Ukraine currently prohibits the use of AI in the final phase of target acquisition. That’s exactly what the drones are said to have done during the test. The statements of Kokhanovskyy, who states that he was not there himself, cannot be independently verified.
During the operation, ten “Terminator” drones were sent three to five kilometers to the front line, where after ten minutes they switched to “Terminator mode” with automatic target detection and acquisition. It is not rumored whether this mode can distinguish between friend and foe – but it is doubtful. According to Kokhanovskyy, there are no video recordings of this: “We started it and knew that after that everything would be dead – everything found in that particular area would be dead. There was no connection to the drones, not even video, nothing… Everything they saw was killed.”
The result was later checked by human-controlled reconnaissance drones. They found “a few dead soldiers and a destroyed truck”. The Ukrainian military did not comment on requests from New Scientist.
The military use of AI has increased suddenly in recent years. An AI system from Palantir is suspected of being partly responsible for the bombing of a girls’ school in Iran and the deaths of over 160 children. What is new about the Ukraine case is that no one was involved in the fatal decision-making. Target detection, target acquisition and execution were left to an algorithm. Humans were only responsible for launching the drones.
At the same event, the Ukrainian military confirmed that semi-autonomous systems are already in use. They capture and track enemy targets automatically. The order to destroy a target lies in the hands of a soldier.
It has long been rumored that fully autonomous AI drones are used in war – in Ukraine, in Libya – the USA also has such systems. The “test” with Bakhmut and Chassiv Yar is the clearest statement to date from a person involved. It doesn’t take JRR Tolkien’s imagination to imagine that technology has evolved in the past two years.
From gamer to entrepreneur
Today’s drone entrepreneur Alexander Kokhanovskyy used to be a passionate Counter-Strike player and an important figure in the eSports scene. Under the name ZeroGravity, he is known for having founded the successful eSports team Natus Vincere in 2009. Navi won until today over five million US dollars in prize money and is considered one of the best teams in the world.
Kokhanovskyy later founded various e-sports brands with the Russian Anton Cherepennikovin which the pro-Kremlin oligarch Alisher Usmanov invested $100 million. He retired from these ventures in 2018.
Kokhanovskyy later bought the traditional one Hotel Dnipro in Kyiv. Ukrainian media expressed the suspicion that he received help from Russian investors, which he denied.
In 2022 he showed himself with an AK-47 on social media and said he was part of a 20-member response force in Kiev when Russian troops were at the gates of the capital.
(tog)