‘Like the movies’: How Ukraine’s ground robots are changing rules of war

What the report says

Al Jazeera reports that Ukraine is increasingly using ground robots to move ammunition, deliver supplies, evacuate wounded troops and, in some cases, attack enemy positions. The article focuses on Murakha, a tracked Ukrainian robot made by Robotic Complexes in Ternopil and used near the front line in eastern and northeastern Ukraine. According to the report, operators control these machines from bunkers far from the battlefield, which can reduce risk to human personnel in areas where Russian drones and artillery make traditional rescue missions dangerous.

The story says the robots can travel over rough ground and are equipped with cameras, infrared lights and navigation systems such as GPS or Starlink. Their electric engines and ability to carry heavy loads make them useful for logistics and, when adapted, for evacuation tasks. Al Jazeera also cites an April operation in Kharkiv region in which two ground robots helped capture a Russian position, a development Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy described as a sign that the future of warfare was already on the front line.

The article places this trend within Ukraine’s wider wartime shift toward rapid, bottom-up innovation. It says more than 200 startups are involved in making ground robots, reflecting a broader move away from reliance on manpower amid Ukraine’s troop shortages and mobilization challenges. Some soldiers interviewed by Al Jazeera praised the systems for deliveries, while others said the robots remain vulnerable to enemy drones and are less reliable for medical evacuations.