As Moscow begins to gain an upper hand in its war against Kyiv, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is overhauling his military, replacing his top general — and creating a branch dedicated to the use of robots on the battlefield. Last week, Zelenskyy announced the Unmanned Systems Forces, a new section of the country’s armed forces that reorganize Ukraine’s widespread use of military drones, bringing them under a single command — essentially creating a new robo-force. Drones have played a critical role in Kyiv’s fight, striking deep inside Russian territory and making up for the country’s lack of troops. But those operations have been scattered across military branches until now. Experts and military-minded Ukrainians we interviewed seem to agree that Kyiv has the infrastructure and means to implement the novel idea, and will be able to stand it up quickly. If it works, it could help shift the tides of the war — and provide a blueprint for how other technologically ambitious countries could prepare for the future of warfare. Like a lot of automation schemes, the idea still depends on humans: Ukraine needs to hire staff to train more soldiers and operate new drones, as well as scale production to make sure the military has enough of the tech. The idea depends on a major ramp-up of production, which would add thousands of long-range drones that can strike deep into Russia, according to Ukraine’s digital minister Mykhailo Fedorov. “This is not a matter of the future, but something that should yield a very concrete result shortly,” Zelenskyy said. “This year should be pivotal in many ways.” During a trip to Ukraine last week, Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.) was briefed on the new branch and spoke extensively with Zelenskyy about the matter, calling it “extremely promising.” “The Ukrainians are basically the MacGyvers of modern warfare,” said Crow, a member of the House Foreign Affairs and Intelligence Committees, in an interview. “They're going to help win the day on modern drone warfare, and they're making extremely large strides on industrial capacity, innovation and also tactics on the battlefield.” With a shortage of conventional ammunition, troops have increasingly strapped explosives to small, cheap drones, crashing them into Russian vehicles and trenches. That technology has quickly become Ukraine’s main source of firepower. Ukraine’s leaders hope an expanded, centralized drone program will also place operators in more secure locations, leading to fewer Ukrainian deaths on the battlefield. As Russia deploys hundreds of thousands of troops in “meat assaults,” top Ukrainian officials have warned that Kyiv needs upwards of 500,000 new troops to fend them off. “We will lose less men,” said Volodymyr Omelyan, a captain in the Ukraine Armed Forces. “If we are able to destroy the Russian front line and destroy Russian supply chains ... the victory of Ukraine and its allies will come much, much faster.” Ukraine is closely watched as a defense tech hub, and is already planning upgrades. In the near future, he added, it’s very likely Ukraine will implement artificial intelligence to further minimize the risk to troops — and make the technology deadlier. When you’re operating a drone at 60 to 120 mph, Omeylan said, it’s very difficult to control. There have already been rumors that Ukraine used fully autonomous drones in the battlefield. Fedorov said in January 2023 that killer drones are “a logical and inevitable next step” in weapons development. Ukraine could enter ethically complicated territory if it begins to widely implement artificial intelligence into drones. Last year, military experts told us that the longer the war goes on, the more likely we’ll see drones that can target, engage and kill targets without an actual human finger on the trigger. There’s no international consensus yet on whether that’s allowed, but the U.S. and other nations have policies prohibiting the development of so-called killer drones. If Ukraine — a country struggling to fend off authoritarian invasion — does so, it’s difficult to imagine who will stop them.
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