The locations of the NC13, a unit of the 3rd Independent Assault Brigade, are as innocuous as the workshops where they repair their robots. The headquarters is an underground facility full of corridors located in northeastern Ukraine accessed through a rusty hatch.
The garage managed by Govorun (his military nickname) is a simple wooden shack where wooden tables with old packing crates have been set up.
Govorun, a 40-year-old engineer, discusses with several of his colleagues the main problem their robots face. "So many fiber-optic aerial drones are used that get tangled in the wheels and, along with the mud, clog them," he explains, showing one of the tires, whose axle is trapped by hundreds of these filaments.
The subordinates at the repair center are unpacking the latest models of unmanned ground vehicles (UGV). Several more are hidden under nets beneath trees.
"Here we assemble them. Until last September, we only prepared robots for logistical use. Now they are all kamikaze robots. We prepare up to 30 per month," Govorun specifies.
The small wheeled devices can travel several tens of kilometers, up to a maximum of 50. "We usually place an anti-tank mine," points out the Ukrainian military. Other times they are equipped with up to fifty kilograms of explosives.
The NC13 unit was created in 2024 by its current commander, Mykola Makar Zinkevych, and its main lieutenant, Bar, a 23-year-old lawyer who joined the army in 2022 when the Russians launched the general invasion of Ukraine.
"We started with UGVs in 2024. We were the first to use this type of machines. Now we have two companies: one for suicide robots and another for robots with machine guns and grenade launchers," explains the young man in the underground facility they use as their main office, not far from the front line.
Since the introduction of ground robotic systems in the war in Ukraine, these UGVs have played a crucial role in tasks such as logistical supply or the evacuation of the wounded, but units like the NC13 have managed to advance another step in military strategy by organizing assaults with these devices, minimizing the use of infantry.
"It was a logical step in the evolution of these machines. The first experiments were conducted in 2024, and since September of last year, it became systematic," Lieutenant Bar indicates.
The officer recalls how their UGVs managed to capture a Russian position last summer and force the surrender of the defending soldiers. According to him, it was an unprecedented event in the history of armed conflicts.
"We sent a first UGV with a 30-kilogram anti-tank mine to blow up the bunker. After the first explosion, we sent a second UGV, and as it entered what was left of the shelter, we saw a sign that said: 'We want to surrender.' The robot captured two Russian soldiers and led them to our troops," he recounts.
Another NC13 robot, equipped with a machine gun, managed to hold a position for 45 days last winter.
According to Bar, their unit uses between 70 and 100 kamikaze robots each month. "In the last two months [the interview was conducted in June], our UGVs have completed 2,000 hours of missions," he added.
Ukraine has become a leading country in the design and manufacture of UGVs in an attempt to offset its clear disadvantage in soldiers compared to Russia with this type of machinery.
The country plans to produce 50,000 machines of this type this year, double the number manufactured last year, but still a fraction of the number of aerial drones generated by the local army in the war, estimated by the Ministry of Defense to be around seven million.
"The use of robots increases every month. If in January, ground drones carried out more than 7,500 missions, in May they exceeded 14,000. The number of units using ground equipment has increased from 117 to 230," the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense reported in June.
Although the use of UGVs has not yet reached the preeminence of aerial drones, ground platforms are increasingly participating in the offensives of the local army, and at the end of June, the Defense Department mentioned above reported on the implementation of a new attack system, unprecedented until now, in which UGVs, aerial drones, and a small number of soldiers are combined.
"It is an approach that is yielding results in the south [Zaporizhia region], where a large amount of territory has been liberated since February, precisely thanks to the use of these new units," the department added in a statement.
Days ago, another unit of the local army managed to send one of these devices to the Kinburn peninsula, in the Kherson province, combining its transfer with a marine drone, which brought the machine gun-equipped robot to the coast. In the video released by the 123rd Territorial Defense Brigade, the UGV is seen reaching the beach and then firing shots at a "Russian position", as reported by the military.
"It is the first known combat mission in this format worldwide. It is a new approach to war, where the most dangerous tasks are carried out by a machine," the soldiers stated in their release.
As noted by the Institute for the Study of War, the well-known Russian Telegram channel Dos Comandantes, specialized in the war in Ukraine, acknowledged the significant challenge posed by the advancement of the attack capabilities of Ukrainian UGVs, citing the specific example of Kinburn.
"We are technologically far behind: we fight with people and Soviet machine guns against robotic drones with AI," stated the Russian information channel.
According to Yuriy Poritskyi, the main executive of the firm Devdroid, one of the factories of ground drones supplying the NC13, initially, the UGVs were a subject of ridicule for some soldiers, as their low speed made them overtaken by military trucks.
"As soon as Rubicon [an elite unit of Russian aerial drones] appeared in the area, we saw [those same] three or four trucks, later set on fire. Now everyone wants to have a UGV, and no one wants a truck, which will be a target for FPV drones," he told a local publication.
The life of UGVs remains short. Suicide robots, logically, do not return from their mission, and those carrying machine guns usually do not exceed a month of existence.
Like soldiers, there are exceptional cases where they have lasted for many months. "We have one used for logistical tasks, Rocky, who has been with us for two years," he points out.
The 79th Airborne Assault Brigade also recently shared the story of Grandpa, a robot nicknamed for having survived nearly 50 missions for over a year.
"It has transported 19 metric tons of cargo and withstood three attacks involving FPV drones and anti-personnel mine explosions," the soldiers said.
In the war in Ukraine, more and more machines are fighting other machines, gradually replacing humans.
The NC13 pilots had prepared a kamikaze UGV attack against a Russian position. All the operators who were to participate in the operation had taken their places in front of the monitors set up in the command bunker. But at 4:56 p.m., a shadow burst into the image captured by the robot's camera with unusual speed, just before the feed cut out.