Ukraine's Third Army Corps, one of the country's most prominent formations, commanded by General Andrii Biletsky, plans to replace roughly 30% of its infantry with ground robotic systems by the end of 2026, his advisor Vladyslav Sobolevskyi told the Black Sea Security Forum in Odesa, Ukrinform reports.
The plan, if executed, would mark a transition from drones augmenting infantry to drones replacing it in the next phase of the autonomous-systems transformation that has redefined Ukrainian battlefield tactics since 2022.
Sobolevskyi framed the goal in human terms: "To save the lives of our soldiers."
From 2014 testing to 2026 replacement
"In 2014, battles were mostly fought in traditional formats. But even then, we began working on hybrid formats," Sobolevskyi recalled.
The Third Army Corps was experimenting with robotic platforms more than a decade ago, before drones had become standard equipment in Ukrainian frontline units.
Of the corps' current drone fleet, "70% is logistics and the evacuation of wounded. The other 30% are drones taking part in offensive actions," he said.
Biletsky's plan extends that 30% figure into the ground-robot domain, replacing roughly one in three infantry roles with unmanned systems by the end of next year.
"A fundamentally new stage"
Such a transition "could open a fundamentally new stage in this war," Sobolevskyi added.
Ukraine has already integrated ground robotic complexes into combat across multiple roles, from logistics runs and mine-clearance to assault and casualty evacuation.
In May, Ukraine began tracking destroyed Russian ground robots as a separate line in its losses ledger, with an initial count of 1,306 units, reflecting how saturated the battlefield has become with autonomous and remotely controlled systems on both sides.
Why does timing make sense?
The Third Army Corps' plan reflects a broader trend across Ukraine's armed forces: an industrial-scale shift toward drones, robots, and autonomous systems to preserve Ukrainian lives in a war of attrition.
Defense Ministry advisor Serhii "Flash" Beskrestnov echoed the underlying logic earlier on 29 May, arguing that "warfare has changed" so fundamentally that "any column of equipment won't last more than a few hours" in the current environment.
