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Russia’s War in Ukraine

Understanding the conflict four years on.

In video after video, some of Ukraine’s toughest new recruits have shown their mettle: taking Russian soldiers prisoner, evacuating wounded Ukrainian troops, and lugging supplies under a sky buzzing with enemy drones. They fear neither destruction nor discomfort, and for sustenance, all they require is a little juice.

These supersoldiers, of course, aren’t human—they’re ground robots, typically four-wheeled platforms that look more like agricultural tools than Terminators. And while they may not be a miracle weapon for ending the war, they are playing an increasingly important role as the embattled nation copes with lethal Russian drones and a critical shortage of infantry.

In video after video, some of Ukraine’s toughest new recruits have shown their mettle: taking Russian soldiers prisoner, evacuating wounded Ukrainian troops, and lugging supplies under a sky buzzing with enemy drones. They fear neither destruction nor discomfort, and for sustenance, all they require is a little juice.

These supersoldiers, of course, aren’t human—they’re ground robots, typically four-wheeled platforms that look more like agricultural tools than Terminators. And while they may not be a miracle weapon for ending the war, they are playing an increasingly important role as the embattled nation copes with lethal Russian drones and a critical shortage of infantry.

“The numbers are increasing—and we’re going to see that scale even more in 2026,” said Rob Lee, a Eurasia expert at the Foreign Policy Research Institute (FPRI).

Ukraine’s use of ground robots—also known as unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs—is driven by the first major technological shift of the war: the rise in 2022 of aerial drones, which kill by suicide strikes, dropping bombs, or streaming back footage to coordinate artillery........

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