The Secret Ukrainian Robot Offensive That Killed 3,000 Russians

New reports reveal that the operation in which converted Ukrainian aerial bomber drones dropped ground drones behind Russian lines to attack the Russians' positions was even more effective than first believed.

The Russians did not believe 'the attackers' were Ukrainian and were even more surprised when they turned out to be machines. The consternation caused by the surprise robot attack distracted and then panicked the defending Russians who were then faced with Ukrainian infantry advancing towards them as the robots assaulted their rear. The result was a Russian retreat in a sector they had held for over a year. JL

Verity Bowman reports in The Telegraph:

In the dead of night, a Ukrainian drone crossed the front line in northern Donetsk, one of a hundred to pass overhead that day. But this was no ordinary drone: a second machine was hanging beneath it, a small robot on wheels, packed full of explosives. The carrier drone flew on past the last Ukrainian positions, 10 miles into Russian-held territory, before dropping its cargo to the ground. Electronic warfare jammed Russian drones, so its crews could not see. Ukrainian drones and artillery struck Russian infantry positions, forcing them into cover. There, the remote-controlled vehicle sprang into action, tracking down Russian soldiers before detonating its payload. Not one pair of 3rd Army Corps boots touched the ground. The feat – part of Operation Vivaldi – helped Ukraine kill 3,000 Russians in months, while recovering 48 square miles of occupied Ukraine. 

The Army of Drones' Success Leads Ukraine To A Growing Army of Robots

From an Army of Drones to an Army of Robots is not just a leap of technology, it is a leap of scale - as well as of innovation and imagination. 

What it means is that the success of the drone war against Russia has led Ukrainian military leaders and tech innovators to conceive of a re-imagined military in which a growing number of tasks can realistically be repurposed for machines, many of which will be autonomous. The implication is that Ukrainian commanders are increasingly confident they can beat the Russians on the battlefield by utilizing their technological superiority and adaptability. JL

Phillips O'Brien reports in his substack:

"In 2022 we launched the Army of Drones. Today they account for 95% of battlefield strikes and Ukraine has over 700 UAV manufacturers. Now, (we are initiating) the roboticization of warfare." This week, the the Ukrainians combined Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and Unmanned Ground Vehicles (UGVs) to help retake land. They used UAVs (drones) to drop UGVs (think small, cheap, robotic vehicles) behind Russian lines. the air-dropped UGVs tracked down Russian soldiers behind the line of contact, which led to faster Ukrainian advances from the front. Credible reports are circulating that the Russians have been pushed entirely out of Lyman. Vivaldi's success (and the overall Russian failure on the front line) has been greatly aided by the ongoing Ukrainian mid-range strike campaign on Russian logistics. 

Druzhkivka Salient Elimination Disrupts Another Kremlin Donbas Plan

Ukraine's elimination of the Russian salient at Druzhkivkva, aimed at Dobropillia, has further disrupted and delayed the Kremlin plan to attack and take the Fortress Belt in 2026.

With two of its pincers decimated and largely destroyed, the Russian military is considered to be in no position to make further gains in Donbas this year - and possibly well into next year. JL

RFU News reports:

From Druzhkivka, northeast of Dobropillia, Ukraine's First Azov Corps deployed its Tuman special-ops unit alongside the Skala Assault Regiment. Participating formations planned the operation together. Their first objective isolated Russian concentrations, restricting movement and preventing expansion before assault groups advanced. That coordination allowed Ukraine to squeeze the penetration from multiple directions rather than simply pushing against its strongest point. Ukraine simultaneously attacked Russia’s fire support. More importantly than the losses, Russia failed to transform its infiltration into the breakthrough it needed as the reinforced Russian formations around Dobropillia failed to generate advances despite substantial redeployments during the summer, causing another delay for the Russian command’s objective: breaking Ukraine’s Donetsk defenses.

Inside the Bunker Where the Lethality of Ukraine's Drone War Is Perfected

The leadership, coordination and technological sophistication of Ukraine's battle management system, put together by successful former businessmen who are now army officers, is responsible for the effectiveness of its overall military strategy, especially its use of drones.

This, in turn, has led to Ukraine's recent successes across most of the front line - and to Russia's failures. JL

Jillian Melchior reports in the Wall Street Journal:

Ukraine's Drone Forces are to 2.5% of Ukraine’s army, but account for a third of Russian casualties in the past year. “By injecting civilians into the army,” Ukraine made its military nimbler. Maj. Robert 'Magyar' Brovdi, a global grain trader before the war, has taken a “business approach. The war is “about math, planning, using forces well” and spending “the smallest budget possible.” Today’s best drone will be obsolete by the time it's ready. ready. The task is to build a system” in which cheap, good-enough drones are effective, Ukraine’s Delta battle system, “integrates every drone, sensor, and shooting platform into a single network.” This unified data is used from the strategic level to the tactical. Drone pilots record pins on a Google-like map of anything they see. That triggers an alert to those nearby, who respond like Uber drivers. Brovdi delegates 90% of combat decisions. After each mission it generates a digital report of 10 key parameters, including the location, conditions, time, target, drone, explosive and pilot. Metrics record which drones best take out specific targets at the most favorable cost ratio.

Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi Phase 2 Just Ended. The Offensive Is Far From Over

As the Ukrainian command keeps reminding everyone, Vivaldi had four movements. They have acknowledged that Phases 1 and 2 are now completed. In keeping with the operating security doctrine that contributed to the counteroffensive's success, Ukraine has not yet announced whether Phase 3 has started - or where it might be. 

The larger point is that Operation Vivaldi, which has already achieved strategic success by disrupting and postponing the Kremlin' attack on the Fortress Belt, still maintains both momentum and the initiative as the crossing of the Zherebets River by Ukrainian forces means they now have a much wider area in which to operate. JL

Ryder Blackthorn reports in The Frontline Signal:

On September 23, the 3rd Army Corps said Operation Vivaldi was still underway, and Russian military-linked sources are now reporting Ukrainian counterattacks farther southeast around Lyman. Russian forces are disorganized, trying to hold important defensive areas, and being forced to find additional reserves. Russian forces apparently believed the wet terrain made heavy vehicle movement unlikely. Ukraine adapted its vehicles for those conditions and moved through terrain where Russian forces weren’t expecting armor, apparently achieving tactical surprise. The initiative remains with the 3rd Army Corps. Phase Two may be finished, but the fighting clearly isn’t. 

Speaker, Microphone Ground Drones Gather Intel, Urge Russians To Surrender

Increasingly sophisticated ground drones are being used by Ukrainian forces to gather intelligence by listening in on Russian communications at the front. Data which is then transferred to strike units for targeting. 

Similarly equipped drones are also being used to broadcast surrender messages and instructions to Russian troops. Some of these can be dropped behind Russian lines by larger aerial drones (photo at right) and can cause confusion, as they have done, most famously during Operation Vivaldi in Lyman. JL

Sinead Baker reports in Business Insider:

Robots in Ukraine's rapidly growing fleet include microphones, which can be used to detect Russian troops and weapon systems nearby. Increasingly, the robots are also equipped with speakers that can talk to soldiers, allowing Ukrainians in dispersed fighting positions to communicate, ask for help, and even to try to persuade Russian soldiers to give up their fight. Russian soldiers have surrendered to Ukrainian war robots. The robots broadcast surrender messages to Russian soldiers. Some Ukrainian units also say they have successfully played audio telling Russian soldiers to surrender from speakers on the aerial drones.

In Drone Strategy Battle, Dispersed Ukraine Is Beating Centralized Rubikon

Ukrainian and Russian drone strategies mirror their military organizational philosophies. Ukraine's is dispersed, adaptive, flexible and innovative while Russia's is centralized, controlled and top-down.

So far - and especially in the latest successes driven by the Operation Vivaldi counteroffensive - the Ukrainian strategy has been beating the Russian. But war has demonstrated the power of iterative, cat and mouse, tactical advances, so to maintain its lead, Ukrainian drone forces have to avoid complacency and stay innovative. JL

Decimus reports in Daily Kos:

The success of Ukraine's Operation Vivaldi owes much to the the drone units of the Ukrainian 3rd corps. They went after and defeated their Russian counterparts, the elite Rubikon drone units in the area, forcing the Russian command to withdraw it from the Lyman front. Rubikon is an elite Russian military group with 5,000 personnel which integrates research, development, training, and combat operations into a unified feedback loop. Ukraine has countered Rubikon through decentralized adaptation, precision strikes on Rubikon’s command nodes and logistics, and the use of agile, digitized “mission control” systems.  Ukraine’s strategy leverages fast-paced innovation, tactical flexibility and precision counter-strikes as drone warfare is fast moving toward greater autonomy, AI integration, and contested electronic warfare.