UN Rights Chief ‘Horrified’ by Reports of Fully Autonomous Killer Drones in Ukraine

The United Nations' top human rights official expressed deep concern on Monday over allegations that fully autonomous drones, launched by Russia, have killed three Ukrainians in the war-torn nation. Speaking before the UN Human Rights Council, Volker Turk described the reports of these "fully autonomous drones" as "horrifying". He also cited reports from Ukraine that they have tested such weapons themselves.

The New York Times recently reported on a specific incident where a drone, fully guided by an artificial intelligence system, killed three civilians in Zaporizhzhia, a city in southeastern Ukraine, on July 6. The drone had been programmed to head towards a particular petrol station, but chose its exact target - likely propane tanks - without any human involvement.

The issue of so-called lethal autonomous weapons, or "killer robots", has been a topic of increasing concern for international bodies and non-governmental organizations. Last month, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Mirjana Spoljaric, president of the International Committee of the Red Cross, jointly called for a ban on such weapons, warning that humanity was "dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines".

Turk echoed these sentiments, calling for an urgent prohibition of weapons that can take lives without human intervention at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council. After years of discussion, 128 countries agreed on a definition of autonomous weapons, although NGOs accused the United States and Russia, in particular, of attempting to water down the agreed text. Decisions on whether to initiate full treaty negotiations on these weapons are expected in November.