A three-year war in Ukraine is still ongoing ever since Russia invaded, with both countries rushing to implement new technology for the frontlines. One of the latest innovations is what’s being called a “kamikaze car,” a vehicle with a machine gun that’s being controlled from afar by Ukraine’s Khartiia Brigade. This allows Ukraine to ambush Russian troops and get close to their dugouts without putting their own soldiers at risk. Unit Spokesperson Volodymyr Dehtiarov told Reuters: “Our task is to maximally transfer reconnaissance, clearing operations, and assaults to robots. They were usually performed by sappers, engineers, ordinary soldiers, and reconnaissance units. We transfer this to machines that we can afford to lose.”
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This isn’t the first time Ukraine has used remote controlled machines in place of soldiers. An attack in 2024 is possibly the first documented machine-only ground assault in the war so far. They used kamikaze drones with mines on them that would ambush Russian troops by exploding near them. There’s also footage of these kamikaze drones wiping out Russian vehicles up to a year ago on multiple occasions.
Ukraine’s continued innovation of remote control vehicles
The kamikaze car popped up this month due to Ukraine’s continued need to create new machines. According to Dehtiarov, Russia continues to adapt to the remote controlled vehicles despite many tech companies pulling out of the country. He explained: “Any advantage […] is eaten up after a few weeks — a few months at most — when the enemy begins to understand, analyze, apply, and scale the same technologies.”
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Ukraine has started to expand its production of ground-based remote technology in an attempt to stay ahead of Russia. This even includes a remote control stretcher that uses artificial intelligence systems as well as an unmanned torpedo waiting to attack Russian ships in the Black Sea. These are just some of the many ways that Ukraine is hoping to fight Russia without putting its own soldiers in danger. Ukrainian authorities have stated that over 43,000 soldiers have been killed since the invasion started in 2022 — but it could even be higher.
