Ukraine Launches First Unmanned Ground Attack: Possible Milestone in History of Human Conflict

Ukrainian forces have, for the first time, carried out a ground attack without the use of infantry, using only unmanned vehicles and drones in an attack on Russian positions near the village of Lyptsi.

The Ukrainian army shared video footage of an attack on Lyptsi, a village in the Kharkiv region, a few days ago. It is not clear when exactly the attack took place, but the footage does show that only drones and unmanned vehicles were used—no ground troops—a first in the war with Russia, according to army spokesman Volodymyr Degtyarev.

The attack included “dozens” of small FPV (first-person view) drones and UGVs, unmanned vehicles equipped with machine guns that can clear or leave mines on the move. “There are advantages to using new technology,” Degtyarev said. “The pace of familiarization is important. Depending on the support and resources, a team can quickly schedule workshops with engineers and learn to use the technology.”

Although there are no troops on the battlefield, this is not yet a “fully autonomous” attack, as soldiers still control the drones remotely. As they fly over the front, they direct the vehicles where to go and what to do. The specialized Institute for the Study of War (ISW) stated, “Ukraine continues to innovate in the production of drones.”

Since the attack was “a success,” according to Ukraine, Kyiv is likely to expand the use of homemade drones in the future. The drones will also likely become increasingly important as the country struggles with a shortage of troops.

“Milestone“
According to former Australian general Mick Ryan, an expert on the war in Ukraine, this was “perhaps a milestone in the history of human conflict”. “Historians will have to decide that in the future, but we can say that this was an important step in transforming the character of the war”, he wrote in his newsletter Futura doctrine.