Ukraine’s military will develop autonomous vehicle units for deployment at the front, the defense minister announced on Wednesday, as Kyiv and Moscow compete for a technological advantage over their adversary after nearly three years of brutal fighting. As part of the statement, the ministry shared a photo of a robotic vehicle with a pistol mounted on it via Telegram. Since Russia invaded in 2022, unmanned vehicles, particularly aerial ones, have emerged as a vital sort of weapon in the battle.

With both sides deploying tens of thousands of drones in the air each month, officials believe the race is on to replace as many soldiers on the ground as possible with unmanned ground vehicles (UGVs), as Ukrainian personnel reserves are running low. “The ministry of defense is launching a project that will scale up the use of unmanned ground systems in the military,” said defence minister Rustem Umerov in a statement released by the ministry. It further stated that the proposal was based on testing undertaken in collaboration with soldiers during the summer of 2024.

Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s digital transformation minister, told Reuters in December that the country would need tens of thousands of unmanned robotic ground vehicles this year. Units on both sides of the conflict have previously been utilizing UGVs, which are typically commanded remotely by a pilot via a camera feed. The defense minister stated that robot vehicles would be employed for offense, defense, logistics, evacuation injured, and laying or removing mines. “Our goal is to create a military where innovative technologies help perform the most dangerous tasks, saving the lives of our defenders.”