Ukraine Unveils New 'Kamikaze' Combat Robots Heading to War

Ukraine is developing an "army of robots" to swell the ranks of its unmanned vehicles deployed along the front line against Russian forces.

Tests have been performed on 25 Ukrainian-made robots designed for the military, the country's digital transformation minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, wrote in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, on Monday.

The robots range "from remote turrets to kamikaze robots," he added, saying: "Technologies and innovations are the key to our victory."

Ukraine has invested heavily in unmanned technology, with its waterborne and unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) frequently making the headlines as they target Russian assets in the Black Sea, as well as hitting Moscow itself.

Experts say the Ukraine war has sparked an unprecedented surge in unmanned technology development, with new forms of uncrewed vehicles constantly popping up and evolving as the war continues.

Fedorov said earlier this month that Ukraine was looking to "scale experience in the field of UAVs to other areas of military innovation" and launch an "army of robots."

"Our team is ready to cooperate with anyone who can help us in strengthening our front in terms of technology," Fedorov added.

Russia has also developed robots that it has said will be used in Ukraine, including the AI-enabled "Marker" combat robot, which state media said would be able to go up against different types of drones, including "kamikaze" vehicles.

The idea behind Russia's Marker combat robot is to "replace a soldier in dangerous missions, and to make missions more effective," Samuel Bendett, of the Center for Naval Analyses, told Newsweek in January.

"The whole point of building such systems is to make them expendable," Bendett added at the time.

Ukraine frequently uses uncrewed, expendable kamikaze vehicles to launch strikes on Russia, notably on its Black Sea naval bases in Sevastopol and in the Krasnodar region, close to Crimea.

Kyiv has targeted Moscow's facilities in the port city of Novorossiysk, with Russia's Defense Ministry regularly accusing Ukraine of drone strikes within its territory.

In a post to Telegram on Tuesday morning, Russia said several fixed-wing drones had attacked the Russian regions of Belgorod, which borders northeastern Ukraine, and Tula, south of Moscow, in the past few hours. Air defenses shot down the incoming drones, it said.

Moscow has also regularly used Iranian-made Shahed-131 and -136 kamikaze drones to attack Ukrainian targets across the country throughout the war.