Watch: Ukrainian soldier rescued from battlefield by robot
Ukrainian soldiers are being rescued from the front lines by remote-controlled robots, a video has shown.
The 20th K-2 regiment, a robot-led unit, said it had evacuated four injured troops across four days using robotic systems, proving Kyiv's growing success in deploying machines on the battlefield.
In drone footage of the rescue, the unmanned ground vehicle (UGV), known as Ardal, approaches a wounded soldier lying in long grass and clutching his leg.
He manages to heave himself into its trailer and the robot – operated remotely from a bunker miles away – carries him away from the front to an evacuation team.
Celebrating the unit's recent success, Kyrylo Veres, its commander, said: 'Four days, four lives saved. These are our comrades from infantry and assault units serving with us on the line. Unmanned systems have already changed warfare in the air and at sea. Now it's time for ground robots.'
The Ukrainian-produced Ardal robot is designed specifically for transporting wounded soldiers and carrying supplies across challenging terrain. Small and hard to detect, it can travel up to 30km and carry up to 200kg.
In early April, days before it was officially approved for military use, Ardal had its first success. Dodging artillery and drones, it evacuated three wounded troops stranded behind enemy lines after several human-led rescue missions had failed.
Ukraine is one of the first countries in the world to deploy robots to the battlefield to rescue casualties and deliver critical supplies to the front.
It is also the first military to form a standalone drone force – the Unmanned Systems Forces, of which the K-2 regiment is part.
Kyiv pledged to deploy 15,000 robots this year in an effort to help overcome its manpower shortages at the front, where Ukrainian troops are often outmanned by Russians at a rate of three to one.
By replacing humans with machines, Ukraine is hoping to gain a technological edge in a war of grinding attrition and save lives.
Compared to drones, which have become ubiquitous to the battlefield in Ukraine, UGV technology is still new and not yet widely deployed – but analysts say that is quickly changing.
Instead of being used in assault operations, ground robots have so far proved most effective in logistical and support roles.
The increasing use of UGVs on the battlefield has increased the depth of the so-called 'kill zone' on both sides of the front, making transportation potentially lethal.
The 13th Khartiiia brigade, a unit that carried out Ukraine's first robot-only assault in late December, successfully evacuated a wounded man using a ground robot in May.
In the first known footage of such a mission, the Tarhan (Cockroach) ground system carried the soldier 12km from an inaccessible section of the front to an evacuation point and on to hospital.
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