What do Ukraine’s robot soldiers mean for the future of warfare?

In a scene reminiscent of a computer war game, three battle-weary soldiers in white snow camouflage emerge from a war-torn alley with their hands raised above their heads.

They crouch down and follow the orders that are shot at them. Fear and shock are evident on their faces as they stare at the barrel of a machine gun mounted on a so-called ground robot.

This footage, released in January by Ukrainian defense company DevDroid, purports to show the moment Russian soldiers were captured by a Ukrainian robot using artificial intelligence.

In April, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that “for the first time in the history of this war, an enemy position was taken exclusively by unmanned platforms – ground systems and drones.”

“Ground robotic systems have already carried out more than 22,000 operations on the front lines in just three months,” he wrote in a post on X, alongside images of green machines with tank tracks…