A squad of Ukrainian “kamikaze ground robots” dropped behind enemy lines eliminated 3,000 Russian troops and reclaimed 48 square miles of occupied territory in Donetsk, officials said.
The secret mission, dubbed “Operation Vivaldi,” began in May and ended last week, when the Third Corps of the Ukrainian Armed Forces made details of the exploit public.
“A historic moment,” he boasted Thursday on Telegram. “The Third Army Corps began a new stage of the war with the landing of ground robots.”
The operation recaptured five villages and three settlements in the disputed Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, one of two provinces that make up the industrial mineral-rich Donbass, which tyrant Vladimir Putin wants to seize.
Russia currently occupies around 80% of Donetsk.
“We are the first in the world to use this tactic: dropping robots on the ground,” General Andrii Biletskyi, commander of the Third Army Corps, said on YouTube.
Bomber drones have been used to drop the small but powerful unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, up to 9 miles behind the Russian front line.
Cameras mounted atop the four-wheeled robots captured the surprise operation.
The unit completed more than 15,700 missions, targeting Russian command posts, shelters, logistics centers and river crossings.
“The enemy expects a threat from the sky, not from the ground,” Biletskyi said. “Where the enemy least expected it, dead and wounded Russian soldiers appeared.”
Gn world
