Ukraine's Defense Forces have received 1,028 ground robotic systems worth roughly $11.6 million through the DOT-Chain Defense weapons marketplace, the Defense Ministry says. The systems increasingly take over dangerous frontline tasks — logistics, evacuation, mine-laying, and combat — that would otherwise expose soldiers.
The deliveries are part of a fast-scaling push toward a goal Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov has set: moving 100 percent of frontline logistics onto robots. The front has become a kilometers-deep drone kill zone where crewed vehicles cannot make last-mile supply runs without being hit, Euromaidan Press reported, pushing both sides to send robots into the gap.
In the first half of 2026, the ministry plans to contract for 25,000 ground robots, twice the total in 2025.
Third of orders delivered, and 343 missions a day
The 1,028 delivered represent about a third of the 3,062 ground robots ordered through DOT-Chain so far, totaling nearly $46.6 million.
The marketplace lists 33 robot models, with units most often ordering wheeled and tracked logistics platforms, combat robots, mine-layers, and kamikaze systems.
In April, ground robots carried out 10,281 logistics and evacuation missions — 343 a day, up from more than 9,000 in March.
How DOT-Chain marketplace works
Through DOT-Chain Defense, built by the Defense Procurement Agency (DOT), combat units choose the systems and quantities they need, while the agency handles contracts, payments, and logistics
That has cut delivery from months to weeks, the ministry said. Under the Army of Drones Bonus program, units can also convert points earned for destroying Russian targets into robots through the Brave1 Market and receive them via DOT-Chain.
Parliament scraps VAT but communications remain constraint
Additionally, on 28 May, 294 Ukrainian lawmakers passed law No. 15259, exempting the supply of ground unmanned systems from value-added tax, the Ukrainian parliament said.
The fiscal push runs into a battlefield limit, though: the hardest problem with ground robots is not the hardware but keeping them connected, Euromaidan Press reported — terrain, buildings, and tree lines disrupt the control signal far more than for aerial drones, and a robot that loses its link drops out of the mission.
For now, the systems reduce the risk to soldiers on the deadliest tasks rather than replacing them.
