Ukraine deploys AI-enabled ground robots in combat, marking shift in warfare

Ukrainian forces have deployed AI-enabled ground robots to capture Russian soldiers and seize enemy positions, marking what President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a first in the war and what analysts call a broader shift in the nature of warfare.

Footage released in January by Ukrainian defence company DevDroid shows three Russian soldiers in white snow camouflage emerging from a war-torn alley with their hands raised, following orders from a ground robot fitted with a machinegun. DevDroid said the video captured the moment Russian soldiers were taken prisoner by a Ukrainian robot using artificial intelligence.

In April, Zelenskyy wrote on X that for the "first time in the history of this war, an enemy position was taken exclusively by unmanned platforms – ground systems and drones." He added that ground robotic systems had carried out more than 22,000 missions on the front in just three months. Some Ukrainian brigades report that up to 70 percent of front-line supplies are now delivered by robotic systems rather than soldiers, transporting ammunition, food and medical supplies and evacuating wounded troops.

The development follows Zelenskyy's April 28 announcement of a target of 50,000 ground robots for the Ukrainian military.

Toby Walsh, an AI expert at the University of New South Wales, described AI-driven military operations as "the third revolution of warfare." He warned: "If we're not careful, warfare will be much more terrible, much more deadly, a much quicker, much faster thing that humans can no longer actually really be participants in, because humans won't have the speed, won't have the accuracy or the ability to respond."

Concerns about human oversight persist. Anna Nadibaidze, a postdoctoral researcher at the Centre for War Studies, University of Southern Denmark, said a major concern is whether "enough time and space" is given to the "exercise of human judgement that's necessary in the context of warfare." In the case of ground robotics in Ukraine, a human operator has so far remained in control, directing machines that can still be halted by obstacles such as uneven terrain.

The debate over autonomous systems intensified after a United Nations report suggested that Turkish-made Kargu-2 loitering munition drones, operating in fully autonomous mode, had identified and attacked fighters in Libya in 2020.

An April report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute warned that the AI supply chain is fragmented, global and heavily dependent on civilian technologies, complicating efforts to govern military uses of AI. The US Defense Department awarded OpenAI a $200m contract to implement generative AI into the US military, alongside $200m contracts for xAI and Anthropic.

The United Nations Institute for Disarmament Research (UNIDIR) is set to meet in June to examine the implications of AI for international peace and security.