Ukraine put robots where its soldiers used to die clearing mines—and lost none
Sent into kill zones too deadly for people, the machines clear paths, mine enemy routes, and evacuate the wounded.
Ukraine's Third Army Corps has become the world's first military unit to employ ground robots for mine clearance during a live offensive, placing the machines ahead of its infantry to protect soldiers from harm, according to Censor.NET. This capability emerged during the army's Operation Vivaldi counteroffensive in Donetsk Oblast.
Minimizing losses drives how the corps plans and fights, with drones and robots leading infantry into the most dangerous sectors. In the Shandryholove sector, the robots cleared 30 kilometers of routes in just two nights – work that would have taken two companies of sappers a full week. Corps Commander Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi emphasized that protecting personnel is the driving factor behind their planning and fighting tactics, with drones and robots always moving ahead of infantry in assaults.
The corps built the robot system from the ground up, scaling it from a single squad to the entire corps, as manual clearing would be impossible in open, fire-swept terrain. Now, ground robots clear about 60% of anti-personnel mines in the corps' area, and they also perform reverse operations, remotely laying mines to cut off enemy reserves and carry out frontline logistics such as evacuating the wounded and transporting provisions and equipment.
Operation Vivaldi continues in Donetsk Oblast, where the corps recently air-dropped robots behind Russian lines, disrupting Russia's plan to encircle the fortified belt of Donetsk cities. In the second phase of Operation Vivaldi, the Third Army Corps liberated Shandryholove and Derylove, taking full control of Drobysheve. Across the operation's first two phases, the corps has retaken 125 square kilometers.
Written by urgent.news from Euromaidan Press's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
