Ukraine ordered its military to field at least 50,000 unmanned ground vehicles in 2026 as commanders push to replace frontline tasks with machines and reduce infantry exposure.
A study by the KSE Institute, Brave1 and Defense Builder found Ukraine's UGV market grew 488% in 2025, and Ihor Shmyryov of Brave1 told the author that 25,000 UGVs will be contracted in the first half of 2026, twice the number contracted in all of 2025.
"The goal is to replace an infantryman on the front line with drones, as much as possible," Shmyryov said.
Shmyryov said UGVs are already hauling ammunition, delivering supplies, evacuating wounded troops and performing engineering tasks, and that in April Ukrainian UGVs carried out more than 10,000 missions, mostly resupply runs.
Ukraine's Defense Ministry has formed "drone assault units" that pair aerial drones and ground robots, and in February Khartiia’s Lava regiment cleared a Russian strongpoint near Kupiansk using ground robots, kamikaze UGVs and strike drones without sending infantry.
Communications remain a key bottleneck, with former volunteer commander Ryan O'Leary describing mesh networking as essentially a prerequisite for large-scale UGV employment to make formations resilient to jamming.
Analysts say Russia fields UGVs for logistics and combat too but likely in smaller numbers, and current systems remain vulnerable to FPV drones, mines and the need to physically reload weapons.
Ukraine plans to field more than 50,000 UGVs this year, developers estimate replacing most frontline positions would require roughly 150,000 to 200,000 annually, and the next step is turning battlefield successes into standardized brigade-level systems.
