Kenneth Glad
A wounded Ukrainian soldier trapped near the front line earlier this year received unexpected help. Instead of a rescue team arriving first, a small robotic vehicle reached his shelter.
According to The New Voice of Ukraine, the incident happened near Kostyantynivka when a wounded soldier from the 112th Territorial Defense Brigade was hiding with two captured Russian troops.
A Rys Pro unmanned ground vehicle drove close to the position and delivered supplies, allowing the Ukrainian fighter, known by the call sign Positive, to prepare for evacuation.
The New Voice of Ukraine reported that Russian forces soon detected the movement and responded with artillery strikes and FPV drones. One of the captured soldiers was killed when a drone struck nearby, while the robotic vehicle itself suffered wheel damage.
Positive and the surviving prisoner took cover in a shelter and waited until help arrived. Later, a second robotic vehicle and an evacuation group helped bring them to safety.
The growing use of robotic systems reflects Ukraine’s rapid wartime expansion of battlefield automation, particularly for logistics and casualty evacuation tasks that would otherwise expose soldiers to heavy fire.
Robots at the front
Such incidents are becoming increasingly common along parts of Ukraine’s eastern front.
Ukrainian forces are deploying remotely operated ground vehicles, or UGVs, to move ammunition, ferry supplies and evacuate wounded troops from positions where manned vehicles cannot safely operate.
Ukrinform reported that soldiers from the National Guard’s 3rd Spartan Brigade carried out such a mission in the Pokrovsk sector. A ground drone transported equipment to the front line before evacuating two injured soldiers.
The operation lasted around seven hours as operators navigated mud, potential minefields and the constant threat of Russian FPV drones.
At a designated meeting point, an armored vehicle collected the wounded and transported them to a stabilization point, Ukrinform reported.
Retrieving the robots
Ukrainian troops sometimes risk their own safety to recover damaged unmanned vehicles.
United24Media writes that fighters from the Combat Hawks battalion of Ukraine’s 25th Sicheslav Airborne Brigade recently released footage showing soldiers retrieving disabled ground robots near Pokrovsk.
In a statement cited by the outlet, the brigade emphasized the importance of the machines to frontline operations. “UGVs are our brothers-in-arms on the battlefield. We do not leave the wounded or damaged behind – we evacuate them.”
The brigade added: “We do not leave UGVs in the grey zone – they still have missions to complete and more lives to save.”
The footage highlights a little-seen aspect of the war’s expanding robotics presence: Troops entering high-risk areas to retrieve damaged unmanned vehicles before they are lost on the battlefield.
Sources: United24Media, Ukrinform, The New Voice of Ukraine
