by Olha Hembik | 2026-06-16

A wounded Ukrainian fighter lay in a half-encircled position in eastern Ukraine -- too exposed for an evacuation crew to reach alive. The only option was a robot. It drove out, found him and carried him back over 36.5 kilometers (22.7 miles), hitting two antipersonnel mines along the way. An armored capsule shielded him from both. He survived.

That rescue, documented by the First Separate Medical Battalion in May, captures where Ukraine's war is heading. Andriy Biletsky, commander of Ukraine's Third Army Corps, plans to replace one-third of frontline infantry with unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs) before year's end, and eventually, up to 80%.

Logistics first, then combat

Today, UGVs primarily move supplies. Biletsky told TSN in March that the Third Separate Assault Brigade already uses robotic ground systems to transport more than 200 tons of cargo per month -- loads previously hauled by armored vehicles and pickup trucks. Armored personnel carriers can absorb shelling, but first-person view (FPV) drones routinely destroy ordinary trucks.

"If you try to deliver loads with people, you'd incur significant losses. You don't feel bad losing robotic ground systems," Biletsky said.

Ivan Stoliarchuk, an officer in the 32nd Separate Mechanized Steel Brigade, learned the stakes firsthand after leading seven evacuation missions near Kupyansk. During one that stretched across several days, the Russians destroyed his evacuation group. A wounded fighter with a fractured back, carried through deep mud on a soft stretcher, died before reaching care after the armored personnel carrier sent to meet them was damaged.

"If it had been a robot, [the Russians] would have shot at it anyway, and we would have lost a clanker but protected the people," Stoliarchuk told Kontur.

A battlefield transformed

Military expert and historian Mykhailo Zhirokhov told Kontur that in the most effective units, UGVs are already integrated into the system for destroying the enemy. In practice: a reconnaissance drone spots the target, a ground robot delivers ammunition or acts as a carrier, and a coordinated FPV drone strike finishes the job.

The most common offensive adaptation is retrofitting a logistics platform as a kamikaze drone loaded with antitank mines, effectively turning a supply vehicle into a one-way strike asset.

Biletsky said that widespread UGV deployment will reshape both tactics and combat formations. Robots lack a soldier's flexibility, he acknowledged, but they can take positions no human could risk.

"If it needs to roll out and engage from a hill, even one with a rounded summit, that's something a human can't do because sometimes there's a 50-50 chance you'll get shot while you're running. The drone will do it, and the chances are high that it will make it and destroy the adversary because it's an ideal position for shooting," he said.

Zhirokhov said that in the near future, a single UGV operator controlling an automated turret will be able to hold an entire sector of the front, destroying targets "just by pressing buttons," he said.

Infantry as elite force

Biletsky's longer-term vision goes further. He predicts that drones, surveillance sensors and robotic combat systems could eventually take over up to 80% of infantry functions, leaving human soldiers for missions that machines cannot perform.

"The infantry will then become an elite specialized force used to carry out missions that robots, drones and so on can't perform," he said.

Oleksandr Antoniuk, a political consultant serving in the Ukrainian military, said the shift extends beyond individual platforms. The front has become a zone of constant surveillance, requiring the coordinated integration of electronic warfare, satellite communications, and digital control systems.

"These systems can't completely replace a service member, but they make it easier for them to carry out fire for effect missions against the adversary," Antoniuk told Kontur.

Biletsky called the expansion of robots on the battlefield the "next round of the technological revolution." With the evacuation footage, the tonnage figures, and the tactical doctrine all pointing the same direction, 2026 may be the year Ukraine's front stops looking like the last century's war.