Ukraine Sends Ground Robots Into Battle Before Its Soldiers
Near Lyman, troops jam Russian spotters and cut supplies, then roll in machines the size of small trucks before soldiers follow.
Up First from NPR · Bracing For Hurricane Isaias, Ukraine Pushes Russia Back, Iran War Impact On MidtermsOn a battlefield watched by drones, Ukraine has found a way to attack without first sending in people.
The method was worked out over months by Ukraine's Third Army Corps for a counteroffensive near Lyman, a city in eastern Ukraine. It runs in a sequence, with each step making the next one safer.
According to the military's account, the first job was to blind. Its troops paired jamming gear with flying drones to block Russian reconnaissance, then knocked out Russian guns and cut the ammunition, fuel, and roads an entrenched position needs to keep fighting.
Only then came the machines. Ukraine rolled forward land robots, driverless carts about the size of small trucks, to weaken the Russian positions. Human assault groups moved in last, to clear what was left.
The Ukrainians say the sequence won back roughly 68 square miles, an area roughly triple Manhattan's land.
The commander of the Third Army Corps, Andriy Biletsky, calls it Operation Vivaldi, for the Italian composer whose famous violin concertos are known as The Four Seasons. He says the effort is still in its opening season.
In a video released by the corps, a soldier known by the battlefield name Jackson, following a common practice in Ukraine's army, speaking in Ukrainian as translated by the NPR reporter, says, "As soon as they appear on our land, we catch up to them very quickly, and we neutralize them."
The fight matters because it is in Donbas, the eastern region Russia has been trying to seize since 2014. Russia holds much of it and wants Ukraine to hand over what remains in any peace deal, which Ukraine has refused.
Questions people ask
What does electronic warfare actually do?
Electronic warfare means attacking the invisible links that modern weapons depend on. Troops use jammers to drown out radio controls, satellite navigation, and video feeds, so enemy drones lose their way and artillery cannot get fresh targeting. It does not destroy the drone so much as make it deaf and blind.
What are unmanned ground vehicles?
They are remote-controlled or partly self-driving carts, often the size of a small truck or an all-terrain vehicle. Armies fit them with machine guns, explosives, cameras, or stretchers, and use them to scout, shoot, carry supplies, or explode near a trench. The point is to take the first hit so people do not have to.
Where is Lyman and why fight there?
Lyman is a small city in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk province, near important roads and rail lines. It has changed hands before, so both sides know its forests and junctions well. Wins there can open routes into the wider Donbas.
What is the Donbas region?
Donbas is the shorthand for Donetsk and Luhansk, two provinces in eastern Ukraine with coal mines, steel plants, and Russian-speaking cities. Russia-backed fighters seized parts of it in 2014, and Russia has pressed for full control ever since. Ukraine treats holding it as central to its independence.