Accessibility links Skip to main content Keyboard shortcuts for audio player Open Navigation Menu --> Newsletters NPR Shop Close Navigation Menu Home News Expand/collapse submenu for News National World Politics Business Health Science Climate Race Culture Expand/collapse submenu for Culture Books Movies Television Pop Culture Food Art & Design Performing Arts Life Kit Gaming Music Expand/collapse submenu for Music Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions Podcasts & Shows Expand/collapse submenu for Podcasts & Shows Daily Morning Edition Weekend Edition Saturday Weekend Edition Sunday All Things Considered Up First Here & Now NPR Politics Podcast Featured Wait Wait...Don't Tell Me! Fresh Air Wild Card with Rachel Martin It's Been a Minute Planet Money Get NPR+ More Podcasts & Shows Search Newsletters NPR Shop Tiny Desk New Music Friday All Songs Considered Music Features Live Sessions About NPR Diversity Support Careers Press Ethics In the Ukraine war, new ground-based drones are playing a key role on the battlefield Ukraine relies on robotic warfare to punch above its weight on the battlefield, including shifting frontline duties from soldiers to land drones. World In the Ukraine war, new ground-based drones are playing a key role on the battlefield June 10, 20264:59 PM ET Heard on All Things Considered Joanna Kakissis In the Ukraine war, new ground-based drones are playing a key role on the battlefield Listen · 7:55 7:55 Transcript Toggle more options Download Embed Embed "> <iframe src="https://www.npr.org/player/embed/nx-s1-5818116/nx-s1-9805255" width="100%" height="290" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" title="NPR embedded audio player"> Transcript Ukraine relies on robotic warfare to punch above its weight on the battlefield, including shifting frontline duties from soldiers to land drones. Sponsor Message
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Ukraine has turned the tide in a full-scale war launched by neighboring Russia more than four years ago. It has done so despite being outnumbered by Russian forces and despite getting far less support than it once did from the U.S. Ukraine maintains an advantage by revolutionizing the use of drones. And the latest innovation is unmanned drones that operate not in the sky but in high-stakes missions on the ground. NPR's Joanna Kakissis spent time with Ukraine's ground drone units and has the story.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: We are inside a hut in Eastern Ukraine, not far from the front line.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #1: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: Next to a grandma couch with plush flowers, six men in army-green T-shirts are huddled around three computers.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #2: (Non-English lan89guage spoken).
KAKISSIS: They look like middle-aged gamers with their handheld devices, but they are soldiers in a rapidly evolving war using robots. One soldier gives his name as Oleksiy.
OLEKSIY: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: He asks, "have you seen the movie 'Terminator,' you know, with Arnold Schwarzenegger? Because this is now a machine war." The computers have split screens showing live footage of what looked like flatbed trucks about the size of bumper cars. These are unmanned ground vehicles - battery-operated, remote-controlled land robots with cameras. And in Ukraine's arsenal of drones, they are another innovation helping the country hold its own against Russia.
This is what a land robot sees?
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #3: Yeah.
KAKISSIS: OK. OK.
The soldiers controlling these land robots are part of the ground drone unit of Ukraine's 93rd Brigade. The unit is called Alter Ego. NPR is identifying Ukrainian soldiers by first name or call sign at the request of the military, which cites security concerns. Alter Ego's commander goes by the call sign Electrician. He points to the screen showing the two unmanned ground vehicles.
ELECTRICIAN: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "So one is transporting ammunition," he says, "and the other has food and water for our soldiers." The drones roll past burnt-out vehicles on dirt roads that are constantly attacked by Russia.
ELECTRICIAN: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "There could be mines, enemy drones, anything along the way," he says. Ukraine's military has been shifting some of the most dangerous front-line operations from humans to drones - logistics, evacuating the wounded and the bodies of the dead and even conducting assaults on enemy positions. Ukraine's defense ministry says the country is making 25,000 ground drones in the first half of this year, more than double produced all of last year when ground drone use began in earnest.
ELECTRICIAN: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Electrician says his unit sends the ground drones to dangerous positions deep inside the front line's kill zone. Surveillance and strike drones fly overhead. Anyone or anything inside is attacked.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRILLING)
KAKISSIS: Alter Ego's ground drones are stored in a fenced-in courtyard a short drive away from that hut with the computers.
(SOUNDBITE OF DRILLING)
KAKISSIS: Soldiers are fixing a few drones in a workshop. The rest are lined up along a fence as if they are on guard duty. The soldiers call this place the zoo.
It's a robot zoo.
(SOUNDBITE OF METAL BANGING)
KAKISSIS: Alisher, another soldier from Alter Ego, shows us a ground robot that's just returned from a mission. It brought back a valuable aerial drone called a Vampire from the kill zone. The Vampire is often used to bomb Russian positions at night. In this case, Alisher says, the Vampire was delivering supplies and had to land in an open field.
ALISHER: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Sending two or three people to retrieve it was not an option, Alisher says. An open field is death, so a ground drone was sent instead.
ALISHER: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: In today's warfare, he says, the ground drone is like an ordinary infantry man who does everything - strikes, logistics, transport, evacuations - missions Alisher used to carry out himself.
ALISHER: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Back in 2023, he says, his unit was ambushed and forced to retreat. And Alisher carried a 260-pound wounded soldier on his back. He says he got six herniated discs and barely made it out alive.
ALISHER: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "When I saw how evacuations could be done with a ground drone," he says, "I started crying." Now he sends ground drones to rescue the wounded who crawl onto the drone, then lie down while it takes them to safety.
(SOUNDBITE OF MACHINERY CLANKING)
KAKISSIS: The unit has also used ground drones in assaults on Russian enemy positions. Ground drones drove Russian troops out of two occupied villages last year.
FRANTSUZ: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Unit member Frantsuz says, "we set up two ground drones with machine guns, then drove right into the villages to draw out enemy fire. The Russians revealed their positions, so our forces knew exactly where to strike."
FRANTSUZ: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: If this had been done with people instead of drones," he says, well, things might have turned out differently. There would have been casualties. Ukraine's military is smaller than Russia's and chronically understaffed. Ukrainian commanders say ground drones are one way to equalize this imbalance.
We drive hundreds of miles to meet another ground robot unit that has pioneered the use of this technology.
UNIDENTIFIED SOLDIER #4: (Non-English language spoken).
KAKISSIS: In a plywood hut that smells of sawdust...
VLADYKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: We meet platoon commander Vladyka, who is with the Third Army Corps. Vladyka tells us his team used ground drones last summer to surround Russian troops in a dugout as aerial strike drones flew overhead.
VLADYKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: They understood that they would be smoked out in the end, Vladyka says. So at some point, they found some piece of cardboard and wrote on it that they wanted to surrender. And the Russians did - to the land robot, a first in warfare, Ukraine says.
VLADYKA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "It was really the most comical situation," Vladyka says. "We watched as the Russians circled around the land drone, waving the sign."
Hello.
CHIMERA: Hello.
KAKISSIS: (Non-English language spoken).
A bearish soldier called Chimera joins in.
CHIMERA: (Non-English language spoken) Chimera.
KAKISSIS: He runs the ground drone unit's workshop.
CHIMERA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: Chimera says he prepares the drones for combat, including their wheels, which must roll through Eastern Ukraine's muddy fields.
CHIMERA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: It's a mix of clay, black soil and grass, he says, and it turns into something like cement. Chimera says he is constantly trying to make his unit's ground drones faster, stronger and more lethal. Russia has its own ground robot system called the Courier, which is used mainly for logistics, and Chimera says the Russians are developing new ground drones.
CHIMERA: (Speaking Ukrainian).
KAKISSIS: "They are constantly watching us and learning from us," he says. "I've seen photos and videos of their robots. They look strikingly similar to our own. They are directly copying us."
This robotic arms race makes Chimera nervous, but he says Ukraine doesn't have much of a choice. It's either adapt, he says, or die. Joanna Kakissis, NPR News, reporting from Eastern Ukraine.
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