Ukrainian

“We didn’t expect this.” A Ukrainian drone has revealed a Russian arsenal in a warehouse, and the surprise has been huge: the missiles are animals

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From the early stages of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, when tanks were advancing while logistics columns were bogged down and fuel was scarce, the war began to reveal an uncomfortable paradox: the more modern it became in the skies, more “medieval” It was done on the ground. In fact, in that space where drones, satellites and trenches coexist, the return of solutions from the past apparently overcome was an early sign that the conflict was going to be, above all, a test of resistance. The latest Ukrainian discovery has confirmed that the wear and tear is tremendous. The return of the war of attrition. The irony is that the war in Ukraine has been shedding any illusion of modernity to return, as the days go by, to brutal logic of wear, one in which the quantity and capacity to take losses They weigh more than any technological “game changer”, and where the Russian army, pressured by the massive consumption of material and men, is beginning to show obvious signs of logistical exhaustion. On the southern and eastern front, the shortage of armored vehicles and modern systems is no longer hidden with silence, but is manifest in improvised solutions reminiscent of conflicts from another era and centuries, while Moscow insists on maintaining constant pressure on Ukrainian defenses at any cost. Cavalry in the 21st century. This wear and tear became visible at the beginning of 2026 when Ukrainian units detected and neutralized Russian assaults carried out on horseback, a tactic that seemed banished from modern warfare but that reappeared in sectors such as Oleskiivka in response to lack of means conventional. We are talking about small assault groups that advanced mounted, supported by prior reconnaissance, in infiltration attempts that ended up being aborted by drones and fire defensive, leaving such an absurd image (and repeated) as revealing: many horses survived, but the soldiers did not, and the Russian army confirmed that it was willing to resort to any available resources to sustain its offensive. The drone and the impossible arsenal. Now, the scene What finally condensed this drift came several weeks later, when a Ukrainian drone sneaked through the destroyed roof of a hidden warehouse, several kilometers from the line of contact, with the usual expectation of finding ammunition, fuel or military vehicles. What happened gives an idea of ​​these four years of slow war that has worn down both sides. Instead of artillery and technology to advance, the camera showed something that looked like something out of a rural garage: aging civilian cars, motorcycles from another era, and saddled horses, an “arsenal” as unexpected as it is eloquent of the state of the war in many areas. The message. “We didn’t expect to see this. It was really unusual,” said the drone pilot. to the Insider mediumspeaking on condition that he only be identified by his callsign “Cosmos.” “We were hoping to find some armored vehicles,” he added. He video It went viral because it summarized in seconds the real state of Russian logistics, but also because it demonstrated that those animals were not an isolated anecdote, but part of a system that already uses cheap and expendable media to move and attack under the constant threat of drones. Russia and the logic of sacrifice. For the Ukrainian commanders, this discovery is neither trivial nor a simple curiosity, but rather proof of a way of waging war based on accepting massive losses of material and personnel, replacing armored by civilian cars and horses because they are easier to replace. This logic, which prioritizes the attrition of the enemy, even if the cost is enormous, explains why Moscow continues to advance slowly, launching assaults with many times obsolete or improvised in regions such as Donbas, even when the monthly casualty figures, according to NATOreach levels that are difficult to sustain. If you will, the drone that expected to find missiles and found animals ended up portraying, better than any report, a war that moves backwards while consuming everything at hand. Image | 82nd Air Assault Brigade, State Border Guard Service of Ukraine In Xataka | It is evident that Russia can absorb thousands and thousands of casualties. So Ukraine is already designing a much riskier plan In Xataka | An unprecedented experiment is happening in Ukraine: bombs have turned dogs into other animals

Russia has a tank so ugly it seemed like a joke. And the most surprising thing is that Ukrainian drones don’t know what to do

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Since the first months of the invasion, the war in Ukraine has become in a laboratory military “tuning” in real time: armored civilian trucks with steel doors, cars with improvised cages against anti-tank missiles, artillery protected with logs or bars welded in haste. As in other long conflicts, when technology does not arrive or is not sufficient, armies resort to bungle creative. From this ecosystem of ugly, urgent and desperate solutions is born the story of the strangest tank of this war… and also one of the most disconcerting for its enemies. Strange but armored. It we have counted other times. On the Ukrainian battlefield, Russia has led improvisation to an extreme almost cartoonish, deploying tanks covered in cagesspikes, cables, rods and metal layers that have earned them nicknames such as “turtle”, “hedgehog”, “furry” or, now, “dandelion”. At first glance they seem like a joke or a symptom of industrial decay, grotesque artifacts closer to scrap than to modern military engineering, but their proliferation responds to a brutal reality: Ukraine’s FPV drones have made classic armor insufficient, forcing Russia to add outer layers whose sole objective is to gain centimeters, time and confusion against attacks that were previously lethal. Origin and evolution. These protective screens, popularly known like “cope cages”began to be seen months ago, when the proliferation of drones transformed land warfare. Initially they were installed only on battle tanks and armored vehicles, but soon they spread to a wide range of systems. Your designs vary greatly: Some structures are crude and heavy, others are better planned, incorporating metal cages, steel plates, chains, spikes, camouflage nets and even reactive armor to reinforce the most vulnerable areas. In the Russian case, some tanks have become completely coveredwhich has earned them the nickname “turtle tanks” due to its resemblance to the shell of these animals. The simple principle that unsettles drones. The logic behind these designs is so rudimentary as effective– If the drone explodes before hitting the main hull, the shock wave loses much of its destructive power. In that sense, the “latest” model, the “dandelion tank”, with branched metal rods and tensioned meshes, works as a three-dimensional barrier that detonates the FPV from a distance, while there are already versions with cables, chains or spikes that seek the same effect from different angles. There has even appeared a sort of brush cutter tank Russian. Every extra centimeter between the explosive charge and the armor increases the chances of survival, and in a front saturated with cheap drones, that minimal advantage can make the difference between a disabled vehicle and one that continues fighting. In fact, this Russian anti-FPV system has migrated to its UGVs. In a video Seen on networks, the Russians claim that this “Courier” UGV survived the attack by a Ukrainian FPV and was recovered, although remembering that the additional weight of the cables will reduce the capacity vehicle loading. From the initial mockery to the silent cup. Yes, because what began as an object of ridicule among Ukrainian soldiers laughing at the welded cages and absurd profiles, has ended in imitation. The Ukrainian forces themselves have begun to equip some of their vehicles with similar protections, and the concept has even spread to NATO armies, with Western French vehicles. testing solutions inspired by these “dandelions”. The implicit message is, above all, uncomfortable: it may be ugly, crude and inelegant, but in real war is working better that many sophisticated solutions that have not yet come to the forefront. Hidden costs and obvious limits. There is no doubt, like so many other extravagant designs in the Ukrainian war, these improvised capes are not a panacea. They add weight, raise the profile of the vehicle, reduce mobility and they offer no real protection facing precise artillery or attacks from below, a tactic increasingly exploited by Ukrainian drones. Furthermore, and here the modus operandi of war, the more time passes, the more operators learn of FPV to identify gaps, adapt trajectories or use new techniques to avoid these metal shields. They are temporary defenses, effective but doomed to lose ground as the adversary figures out how to break them. An absurd race that defines modern warfare. Still, the central fact remains: Russia has created tanks so strange that they seemed like a jokeand for a time they have achieved something unthinkable, leaving enemy drones without a clear answer. In a war of attrition, cheap and experimental, where every day they look for emergency solutionsthese grotesque layers symbolize the current conflict better than any doctrine: a constant race of trial and error, in which even the most absurd can become, even for a moment, the best defense available. Image | Telegram In Xataka | The cold is so savage that Ukraine has activated the most kamikaze option: the “50,000 Russians per month” or giving Moscow what it wants In Xataka | “A human safari”: going outside in a Ukrainian city is now equivalent to being a shooting target for drones

the Ukrainian drone that stopped Russia for six weeks with a machine gun and not a single human soldier

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On the Ukrainian front, where every meter conquered or defended is paid for with a human cost that is increasingly difficult to assume, ingenuity is has become a resource as valuable as ammunition. In this context of extreme wear and constant adaptation, some units are experimenting with little visible solutions that, without attracting attention, are beginning to change the way a battle line is held. When there are no soldiers left. In a war marked by a shortage of infantry and the extreme lethality of maintaining forward positions, Ukraine has begun to test a solution that until recently belonged to military science fiction: leaving the front in machine hands. During 45 consecutive daysa Ukrainian unit maintained front-line sectors without direct human presence, entrusting the defense to a single land vehicle unmanned, a bet that summarizes the crude logic of the current conflict: if something can receive enemy fire, it better not bleed. The doctrine. The experience was reported by the NC-13 Strike Company, integrated into the Third Corps of the Ukrainian Army, a unit created specifically to operate unmanned ground vehicles. Its commander, Mykola “Makar” Zinkevych, explained that the idea was radically simple: “robots don’t bleed,” and the ground drone was the only element present in the position, carrying out constant suppressive fire missions to deter Russian advances and force the enemy to confront a defense that could not be psychologically worn down or eliminated with human casualties. The droid TW 12.7. The system used was the Droid TW 12.7developed by the Ukrainian company DevDroida small tracked vehicle armed with a heavy machine gun M2 Browning .50 caliber. Far from being an isolated prototype, the drone was displaced between different positions at the request of local command posts, acting as a mobile punishment platform that turned each attempted Russian advance into a costly and risky operation. The Droid TW 12.7 Wear and tear… also for machines. Although the robot could remain in place for days, it needed withdraw every 48 hours for maintenance, resupply of ammunition and recharging of batteries, tasks carried out by a team located several kilometers from the front. The process, initially four hours, is reduced by half thanks to the purchase of additional batteries paid for by the soldiers themselves, a detail that illustrates the extent to which the Ukrainian war continues to depend on local initiatives and improvised financing even when talking about advanced technology. Limited autonomy. DevDroid affirms that the Droid TW 12.7 can operate at distances of up to 15 miles and has artificial intelligence-assisted navigation functions, although it is unclear to what extent it can act autonomously in combat. Even so, the simple fact that a single UGV has held positions for six weeks demonstrates that the value of these systems lies not only in their sophistication, but in their ability to replace human bodies in tasks where survival is minimal. From experiment to military doctrine. After this experience, the Zinkevych unit plans to expand the use of UGVs in both defensive and offensive missions, relying on new variants equipped with grenade launchers already approved for official use. The demand, recognizeis very high, but so are the costs, to the point that development continues to be partially financed through crowdfunding campaigns. The future of the front. If you like, the case Droid TW 12.7 It is not just a technological anecdote, but a sign of where to go war is headed modern in Ukraine: a battlefield where every meter can be defended with sensors, steel and algorithms instead of flesh and blood, and where the strategic value of a soldier begins to also be measured by his ability not to be physically there. Image | Tank Bureau In Xataka | Russia has reminded the planet that the war in Ukraine is a ticking bomb. And for this he has pressed a nuclear button: Oreshnik In Xataka | Ukraine has become an animal slaughterhouse: Russian soldiers appear with horses and drones blow them up

A Ukrainian system has accelerated the death of kamikaze drones. It’s called Delta, and it does in 120 seconds what took days

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The war in Ukraine has turned the drone into the central weapon of the battlefield, but it has also made evident an insurmountable limit: the kamikaze modelswhich dominated the early years of the conflict, are beginning to die due to sheer unsustainability. The almost thousand kilometer front requires a continuous supply of platforms capable of surveillance, harassment, destruction and survival. And Ukraine has realized this. The sunset of a drone. Russia can no longer guarantee that supply with the cheap, single-use drones it previously launched by the thousands. The western sanctions have strangled Moscow’s access to advanced sensors and critical processors. Furthermore, the Ukrainian attacks to assembly plants They have broken production chains, and the cost of losing increasingly sophisticated systems against denser Ukrainian defenses has made the model unviable. of “launch and forget”. For the first time, Moscow recognizes that it cannot replace what it destroys with the same speed. The Russian bet. Faced with this scenario, Russia is reconfiguring its fleet towards reusable drones that combine precision, electronic resistance and multiple attack capacity. Platforms like the Night Witch (capable of carrying twenty kilos, operating for forty minutes, launching up to four munitions and returning to base) mark the shift towards designs that survive the mission. The Bulldog-13 follows the same logic: modular, resistant to interference and with advanced sensors that would be too expensive for a disposable platform. This evolution not only affects offensive drones: russian interceptorspreviously designed to collide and destroy each other along with their objectives, begin to incorporate methods that allow recovery. From improvised loads like food cans thrown over FPV ukrainians up to electrified rods capable of incapacitating several drones in a single flight, the pattern is clear: if the platform is increasingly complex and more expensive, it cannot be lost on each mission. Russia is, out of obligation rather than choice, migrating toward a fleet that looks more like onepersistent unmanned flight than to an infinite store of cheap projectiles. The Russian limit. The operational advantage of these advanced systems it is evident: interference-immune navigation, thermal optics with digital zoom, long-range links and semi-autonomous capabilities allow for more precise and adaptable attacks. However, Russia pays an operational price: every drone that must return to its base sees its time available in the combat zone. reduced by half. The flight cycle shortens, the attack window narrows, and exposure to Ukrainian defenses widens. It’s the paradox of the reusable drone: more valuable, more capable and more vulnerable to logistical wear and tear. But Moscow has no alternative. Without mass replenishment, drone survival becomes a strategic resource. Ukraine breaks the cycle. And while Russia tries to extend the life of its drones to survive the technological blockade, Ukraine is blowing up the very logic of the war of attrition with a digital tool that turns every sensor on the front into a potential trigger. Previously, locating a Russian target, verifying it, transmitting it, and assigning it to a unit could take up to seventy-two hours, enough time for any vehicle, artillery piece, or tank to move or camouflage. Now, with Delta (the system battle management created and iterated over two years of real war) that cycle is reduced to two minutes under optimal conditions. Delta integrates satellite imagery, radar, reconnaissance drones, frontline observers and data from multiple branches into an interactive map that instantly shows where own and enemy forces are. Operating with NATO standardshosted in the cloud and already used by 90% of Ukrainian units, Delta turns warfare into a digitalized and almost automatic process: see, mark, assign and shoot. Drones that “live” too long. The consequence is devastating for Moscow. Their reusable dronesmore complex and expensive, survive by not wasting themselves on suicide attacks, but at the same time they face a battlefield where every exposure, every takeoff and every return can be detected, processed and attacked in a matter of seconds. The old Russian shelter (moving positions from one day to the next) ceases to exist when a Ukrainian FPV can take off, travel kilometers and hit in less than three minutesor a 155mm battery can open fire minutes after receiving verified coordinates. Even long-range systems, which require planning and preparation, now benefit from a flow of intelligence that never sleeps: latency is no longer strategic, only technical. The kamikaze in extinction. The joint result of both transformations (the Russian transition to drones that must survive and the Ukrainian transition to a system that kills in minutes) alters the nature of drone warfare. The russian kamikazes They do not disappear due to lack of usefulness, but because lack of replacement. And the drones that survive must now contend with an environment where survival depends less on their robustness and more on escaping a detection cycle operating at digital speed. What was once a war of saturation is now a war of instant precision. And in that equation, a new paradox arises: each Russian reusable drone is worth more… just when Ukraine can destroy everything it can see faster than ever. Image | Telegram, Dmytro Smolienko/Ukrinform, RawPixel In Xataka | The new peace plan in Ukraine has been reduced to 19 aspects. The problem is that the key point measures 900 km In Xataka | Ukraine’s latest tactic begins with a song. It is the prelude to an unknown trick: “sending” Russian missiles to Peru

This is how Moscow wants to stop Ukrainian drone incursions

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Losing your mobile connection when entering Russia has become, in recent days, a very real possibility for those traveling to the country. It is not a blackout zone or an operator error, but a measure that is part of the new approach with which Moscow is monitoring its networks amid the conflict with Ukraine. On November 10 began to be applied in Russia a mechanism that allows you to temporarily restrict the use of certain SIM cards when they reconnect to the country’s network. According to the Ministry of Digital Developmentit is a system aimed at verifying that the line belongs to a real user and not to a device used for other purposes. The idea fits with what Minister Maksut Shadayev advanced in August, when he explained that his department was studying blocking SIMs from abroad for a few hours when crossing the border. When the SIM reappears. In the case of Russian cards, the authorities have established a mechanism that is activated when the line reconnects to the national network after having been inactive for 72 hours or after a period of roaming. During this interval, access to mobile data and the use of SMS is suspended. It is not presented as a technical failure, but rather as a preliminary check that the network executes before allowing normal use of the service. For SIM cards that arrive from abroad, the system works more directly. When the line connects to the Russian network, the same temporary blocking that we have already talked about is applied, but with a clear procedure to remove it. The user receives an SMS from the operator that explains the restriction and includes a link to complete a captcha that proves that the card is in the hands of a person. If you prefer, you can do this by phone, where the operator confirms your details before reactivating services. The drone war is also going through mobile networks. The official explanation maintains that some SIM cards with data access can be found inside enemy drones and serve as a navigation or control channel. It is not an isolated idea. In Operation Spider’s Web, described by CSISUkraine used drones equipped with 4G/LTE-based systems and autonomous flight software. Even without stating that they all work the same, this precedent shows that mobile networks have become one more element of a conflict where each communication channel counts. One more measure in a much larger mosaic. Determining the real impact of these limitations on drone raids is not easy, among other things because there is no single operating model. The CSIS analysis reflects that even in systems that rely on mobile networks, autonomy plays a key role and that the weight of connectivity can vary depending on the mission. In this context, the restrictions applied by Russia fit as another tool, the exact scope of which depends on factors that are not public and that vary from one operation to another. For users, these measures mean living with a system that introduces an additional pause every time the SIM card changes context. The impact is especially visible in border areas, where mobile phones can automatically connect to networks in other countries and activate unwanted restrictions. Authorities have recommended configuring network selection manually to avoid this. Recovering the service involves following the steps we have mentioned. Images | Xataka with Gemini 2.5 In Xataka | In Ukraine the difficult thing is not to replace a drone but its pilot. So Russia has started the hunt with something unprecedented: Rubikon

Ukrainian troops need something much simpler and more urgent than Tomahawks missiles: cheap cars

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The month of October began with a trip from Ukraine to the United States and a very specific goal: Tomahawks. The request was as simple as it was dangerous: kyiv requested Washington’s long-range missile to counter Moscow’s attacks. The problem was that this implied crossing a red line that could raise the Russian war escalation. In the end there will be no Tomahawksat least for now, and the truth is that the Ukrainian army has other priorities right now. The visible and the decisive. He told in an extensive report the kyiv Independent that, in Western public debate, the war is projected around long range missileslegislative packages and iconic systemsbut at the level where the war decides the pace (the axes of infiltration, fine logistics and human replenishment) Ukraine is losing because of elementary things. Namely: cars that last only two weeks, drones that are lost faster than they are replaced, and units that are emptied of men before they are emptied of ammunition. In that tactical layer, the tomahawk It does not resolve that a company that must simultaneously transport personnel, food and ammunition has only one vehicle and must choose what to sacrifice each day. The priority: cars. The anecdote of the recruit Ihor in the middle summarized The pattern: three consecutive FPVs against the same vehicle until it is immobilized. The average life of a car in the front is about a monthsometimes two weeks, and each destruction not only takes away mobility but also room for maneuver: without redundancy, each rotation forces us to stretch positions and that exhausts men faster than the ammunition itself. That’s why what they ask they are carsas cheap as possible, but that work. Hence the heavy armor are not a solution (They become priority targets and are less agile than, for example, an old car that accelerates and disappears). In short, what is needed is not weight but number to absorb losses without collapsing the logistics cycle. Drones and sensors. Ukraine uses the order of 9,000 drones a daywith a devastating impact at low cost, but also loses at an industrial rate by electronic warfare and operational consumption. Without enough reconnaissance drones, the “line of sight” contracts to five kilometers and they are left blind to disrupting Russian flows. Some units have a surplus, but others lack the basics: the deficit is not only volume but of distributionand the structural deficiency is not being absorbed by the State but by decreasing donations and the pockets of the troops. Without spare part. The biggest deficiency is, of course, human: hardened brigades that are not refilled, rotations that do not rotate, training centers without means that even train with stones instead of real grenades. Mobilization is politically taboo. The national media recalled that 30% of those mobilized He is not fit and part of the rest are returns from absentees. Thus, even when there is a drone and platform, the pilot is missing. Russia, on the other hand, replenishes its human mass every month. Ukraine stretches the same bodies more weeks under greater drone saturation, and structural fatigue is cumulative and irreversible. System fails. If you also want, the photograph does not describe an army without technology but rather a system with “holes” in its redundancy layer: where there should be five vehicles there is oneand where there should be ten drones per section there is one too, and where there should be a wave of trained reserves arrives a tiny fraction. Plus: where the same men should be relieved every certain cycle, they are kept for months due to lack of substitutes. That is the plane where continuity is resolved: without those cars that are requested, without density of eyes in the air and without competent human replenishment, each meter becomes more expensive than each missile. Trivial lack. It ended media report emphasizing an idea. It is not that the Tomahawk don’t matter (they matter for the purposes of depth and possible future negotiation), is that its strategic effect is diluted if the lower network that supports the line is detached due to cheap shortcomings. Victory today is less like who introduces a miraculous system first than who can continue to move people, food, ammunition and sensors until the last kilometer without breaking the human machine that executes it. Therefore, for those in the trenches, the priority is not the long-range missile that will appear on the front page of all the media, but rather the unglamorous resources that keep alive the ability to continue fighting the next day. Starting with a car that simply works. Image | Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, Pexels In Xataka | Russia’s biggest threat in Ukraine is not a drone or a missile. It is a film agency with 30 secret floors In Xataka | There is something more disturbing than “a Chernobyl”: it is a flying Chernobyl, it is in the hands of Russia and it is already testing it

The Ukrainian army that is not afraid of Russia. They arrive as outdated machines and become robots for war

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The year 2025 has been a radical change in the Ukraine War. We had seen drones with shotguns of double cannonrobots Lanzaluelaunmanned vessels With missilesairplanes With shotguns or even devices with kilometer cables of optical fiber Looking for its goal through algorithms. However, in recent months a change in trend has been accelerated. Because soldiers are no longer recruited, they are recruited directly robots. Even if they are antiques. Improvising on the front line. It Forbes counted. In an abandoned Soviet warehouse in Donetsk, Ukrainian soldiers and engineers transform old vehicles into non -manned combat systems, the called UGV. Under the command of Oleksandr, head of the Robotic Unit of the Antares Battalion, the workshops work thanks to raffles, donations and volunteer networks that Finish pieces and spare parts. Robots arrive with analog communications vulnerable to Russian electronic war and are completely comforted: new chassis, digital systems, StarlinkLte or encrypted links. Each conversion costs Between 750 and 1,000 dollarswithout counting satellite equipment, and requires maintenance after each mission. Once ready, the UGV are mostly destined for tasks logistics and evacuationtransporting ammunition, food or injured under enemy fire, although some are equipped with turretsmortars or electronic war modules. The speed remains limited and unstable connectivity, which forces them to use them mainly at night or in discretion conditions to avoid Russian kamikaze drones. Robots against the death zone. The proliferation of drones in Ukraine has extended The Russian “Kill” More than 15 kilometers behind the front line, causing entering or leaving positions to be one of the most lethal maneuvers. In fact, up to a 80% of the casualties Russians are already attributed to unmanned systems, and losses of Ukrainian logistics vehicles have forced multiply the use of UGVS for supplies and evacuations. The need is so high that in December 2024 the first compound Ukrainian assault was documented entirely by robotsand in July 2025 the 3rd Assault Brigade achieved an operation with Russian surrender Without own casualties. However, the UGV follow being vulnerable: day they are easy prey of FPV drones, and any signal failure can leave a wounded in the open field. Given this, some units are used as suicidal vehicles, launched against trenches, bridges or mined fields to detonate loads and open path. Another UGV development An accelerated race. Both kyiv and Moscow They experience With fleets of terrestrial robots, aware that the future of combat will depend on the mass integration of autonomous systems. Ukraine aspires to deploy 15,000 UGV By the end of 2025, supported by The Brave1 programwhile Russia shows prototypes With thermobáric launchers in their state media. The analysts They point That kyiv maintains advantage thanks to a decentralized network of start-ups and creative brigades, while Russia still depends on fragmented and volunteer efforts. At the same time, other global actors Like China They observe carefully the Ukrainian innovations to incorporate them into their own war doctrines. The test terrain in Donbás is accelerating a cycle of military innovation that in peace times would have been. Of logistics to direct fire. Ukrainian brigades already work for prototypes that They go further of the simple delivery of supplies: anti -aircraft turrets, UGVs kamikaze with Starlink to attack tanks, and modular platforms that can be adapted according to the mission. The main challenge is to reduce costs and simplify the operation to massify its deployment. The 28th mechanized brigade even presented a UGV equipped with A manpads Iglacapable of folding drones or low -level helicopters keeping operators covered. The vision is clear: an army in which the machines do the most dangerous work and the soldiers are preserved for control and supervision missions. The role of civil innovation. The rapid evolution of this robotic war It would not be possible without the direct intervention of Civil engineers and entrepreneurswhich have created a unique ecosystem of warlike innovation. Organizations as dignitas Ukraine They drive the Victory Robots programThey train soldiers in the management of UGVs and spread best practices among brigades. These initiatives They seek to build a “technological shield” that reduces human casualties and accelerates the adoption of autonomous systems. The next phase, they anticipate, will be the integration of artificial intelligence into terrestrial robots, multiplying their autonomy and efficiency in the battlefield. A robotic army. The Ukrainian bet for the UGV is not conjunctural, but part of a long -term strategy to compensate for demographic inferiority against Russia. If they manage to industrialize their production and stabilize the supply chain, these robots could become In spine From a hybrid army in which humans and machines fight side by side. Thus, the perspective of a future where entire brigades are accompanied by swarms of aerial drones and autonomous land vehicles no longer belong to science fiction, but to everyday reality of the Ukrainian front. For kyiv, robotics is more than a tool: it is the key to resist for years in a wear war and, perhaps, to define what the wars of the 21st century will be. Image | TV Zvezda, Gopua In Xataka | Something unprecedented in Ukraine is happening: combat drones do not need humans to coordinate and attack In Xataka | We had seen the drones of Ukraine do everything, but this is new: they are arriving lost to countries outside the war

Russia is using an unprecedented tactic to dynamit Ukraine: Telegram and Ukrainian adolescents

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The story jumped following a data from Ukrainian intelligence. Apparently, More than 700 people They have been arrested in the country for crimes of sabotage and terrorism. The problem? That a quarter of them were minors, so an investigation was opened to find out how they had got there. They discovered something much bigger: many of them did not even know they were executing a Russian mission. Spies and terrorists by accident. The war between Russia and Ukraine has stopped being fought only in the battlefields to infiltrate the teenage mobiles. A growing number of Ukrainian minors is being recruited by Russian intelligence services through messaging applications Like Telegramwith the promise of easy money in exchange for performing tasks ranging from taking photographs of military objectives to the placement of explosives. One of the most recent cases is that of a 16 -year -old arrested In fraganti In the city of Dnipro while collecting information about Ukrainian military positions For the FSB. Your case It is not exceptional: According to the Ukraine Safety Service (SBU), more than 700 people have been arrested for espionage, sabotage or terrorism directed by Russian agents, and as we said, around 25% were minors. From Telegram to the battlefield. The capture methods follow a disturbing pattern. Wearing anonymous accounts In Telegram, Discord, WhatsApp or Viber, the Russian agents contact young people offering them Between $ 100 and 1,000 For simple tasks that become more and more dangerous: take photos of anti -aircraft systems, cause fires in critical infrastructure or plant explosives in recruitment stations. Many of recruited teenagers act knowingly, others believe they are participating in games o Digital challenges, as in the case of two children under 15 and 16 years in Járkiv, who thought to be completing a “Quest” by following FSB instructions to geolocate and record military facilities. These coordinates were used to guide air attacks against the city. Involuntary suicides. In other cases, the result It has been lethal: two recruited teenagers to place a pump in a train station in Ivano-Frankivsk were Victims of the device itselfremotely activated by its Russian supervisors, in what has been described as a forced suicide operation without knowledge of the executor. In another, described For the GuardianOleh, a 19 -year -old from East of Ukraine accepted a job offered by a stranger named “Anton” for $ 1,000: he had to collect a backpack in Rivne and sprinkle paint in front of a police station. It happens that there was no paint inside the bag, but an improvised explosive artifact, with cables, an attached mobile and a deadly trap that would have made it, without knowing it, a suicidal attacker. The operation. Oleh was progressively recruited. He started sending photos of public buildings for 50 dollars in exchange for cryptocurrency payments, which made him enter the orbit of his captors. After refusing to set fire to a building, he was contacted weeks later by another man, “Alexander”, which offered him a new seemingly harmless task and Better remunerated. Oleh convinced his friend Serhiy to join the plan. Both, unemployed and needy money, traveled to Rivne and collected the bags in an agreed area. The operation, carefully directed by Alexander from Telegram, included precise instructions, video calls, remote surveillance and an alleged spray with which they had to make a symbolic graffiti in front of a police station. However, at the last moment, when opening the package, Oleh discovered that he had been deceived and alerted a policeman nearby. SBU agents who followed the operation arrested both young people. The attack was avoided thanks to signal blocking systems that prevented Alexander from detonating the explosives by a call. The same type of attack had killed a 21 -year -old boy three days before in the same city. Systematic campaign The Ukrainian authorities They denounce that this strategy is not sporadic or improvised, but a systematic effort For destabilizing the country from within, exploiting the precariousness and emotional vulnerability of its youth. Displaced young people, orphans for war or simply in need of money for a mobile phone have become objectives of a covert war machine that transforms their curiosity and despair into sabotage tools. Faced with this, the SBU has launched A national campaign of awareness to counteract these tactics: alert messages by SMS, poster posters, educational videos in trains and visits to schools where agents teach adolescents how to detect recruitment signals. He campaign motto“Do not burn yours, burn the enemy,” seeks to reverse the narrative imposed by Moscow. National Security vs. Childhood Rights. No doubt, the use of minors in espionage and terrorism actions also raises a Legal and ethical dilemma. Under the martial law in force in Ukraine, crimes of betrayal, sabotage or collaboration can lead to Perpetual prison sentenceseven for teenagers. Although the Government ensures that due process and legal representation are being guaranteed, organizations such as Human Rights Watch They warn that minors must be treated under international youth justice standards, prioritizing rehabilitation. Even so, internal pressure on the authorities It is huge: With a current total war and Russian attacks guided from within the country, even adolescents arrested for collaborating with the enemy are seen as traitors. For the head of the SBU, Vasyl Malyuk, there is no ambiguity: “For us, they are traitors of the State.” Threat that grows. He counted The Financial Times That the sophistication of Russian recruitment techniques is increasing. In June, the SBU warned about a new tactic: Russian agents who pass Ukrainian officials to manipulate minors and get sabotages or cyber crimes on behalf of the government themselves to harm. Disinformation, digital anonymity and the use of playful playful dynamics have converted the phones of Ukrainian adolescents into The new front of a war without clear rules. Thus, as the conflict extends, Ukraine is forced to fight not only against missiles and drones, but against an invasion that is also infiltrated in the youngest and most vulnerable minds of his society. Image | … Read more

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