Ukraine transformed Soviet-era armored vehicles into unmanned “zombie cars” that destroyed Russian defenses and allowed kyiv to capture 250 Moscow soldiers, officials said.
As part of Operation Vivaldi, which led to the liberation of three Ukrainian villages on Monday, kyiv troops launched a squad of BTR-60 autonomous armored vehicles which rammed into the most heavily fortified Russian positions in the town of Nove.
Footage from the frontline battle showed how the armored vehicles raced across muddy terrain and slammed into the Nove barracks, which had been transformed into a key Russian logistics hub.
The operation was carried out by the 3rd Ukrainian Army Corps, with Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi touts the rapid work that forced entire Russian units to surrender.
“The idea that ‘the Russians are not surrendering’ in the films resulted in the capitulation of entire units, including officers, pilots and gunners,” Biletskyi said of the Kremlin’s battered forces.
“We hope to exchange them soon for Ukrainian soldiers currently in captivity,” he added.
The kamikaze vehicles are just the latest examples of how Ukraine has been forced to innovate and create mechanized forces to counter the relentless wave of Russian invasion forces.
These machines have become more deadly over the four years of war, with Biletskyi estimating that some 2,000 Russian soldiers were wounded or killed in the latest operation.
The liberation of Nove was carried out as part of Operation Vivaldi, a gradual counterattack aimed at retaking Ukrainian lands occupied by the Russian army.
Together with Nove, the 3rd Army Corps liberated the settlements of Ridkodub and Katerynivka, and restored full Ukrainian control over the villages of Karpivka and Novomykhailivka.
Operation Vivaldi has so far liberated nearly 68 square miles of territory from Russian forces, according to the Ukrainian military, with kyiv already retaking around 288 square miles in the first months of 2026.
The Russian military still controls about 45,000 square miles of territory, or about 20 percent of Ukraine, according to an analysis by the Washington-based think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies.
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