Ukraine sees use of uncrewed ground vehicles, AI-targeting drones surging next year

Ukraine will need tens of thousands of uncrewed robotic ground vehicles next year to shuttle ammunition and supplies to infantry in the trenches and evacuate wounded soldiers, a senior government minister told Reuters.

The buggy-like vehicles, an example of how technology is transforming trench warfare in Ukraine, would spare troops from operating in areas near the front where Russian shelling and drones are rife, Deputy Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said.

"This year we purchased several thousand ground platforms, and next year, I believe, we need tens of thousands," the minister, who has overseen drone procurement for most of the war, said in an interview.

The vehicles, he said, are already being used along the front and in Russia's Kursk region, where Kyiv's troops carved out an enclave in an August incursion.

Ukraine has several training centers to teach their use, he added.

The use of military technology has rapidly evolved, even as the war has been locked in a bloody, attritional struggle with no major battlefield changes despite Russia's recently accelerating gains 33 months since the 2022 invasion.

Fedorov, whose official remit is digital affairs, has played a prominent role in supporting the development of military technology through a government-backed platform to nurture private-sector innovation. As of this month, he no longer oversees the procurement of drones.

Ukraine has focused heavily on increasing production and improving the specifications of long-range attack drones to conduct deep strikes on Russia, narrowing the gulf in capabilities with its adversary.

Ukrainian production of long-range drones has increased dozens of times since 2023, with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy targeting output of 30,000 of the deep-strike weapons next year, Fedorov said.

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