In Ukraine, ground drones are replacing infantry on battlefield

In a cramped workshop near the front line in north-eastern Ukraine, military mechanic "Chimera" is helping prepare his unit's robot forces for battle. Lined up in a row, the four-wheeled unmanned vehicles known as "Hyenas" will crawl toward Russian lines with their payload of explosives and attack an enemy dugout or halt an advance.Similar models have captured Russian prisoners, said Chimera (44), who asked to be identified by his call sign. "Imagine what 20 kilograms of explosives is like: it's very powerful," he said. "Very powerful." Workshops like this one, run by Ukraine's Third Army Corps, have sprouted up across the 1,200-km front as Kyiv's outmanned army seeks to gain the technological edge against Russia's unrelenting infantry assaults in the fifth year of war.Unmanned ground vehicles are a critical new component of Ukraine's strategy to fight smarter by preserving the lives of its troops on a drone-saturated battlefield, where virtually any movement can prove deadly. Most Ukrainian brigades feature unmanned systems units which are expanding to include UGVs as part of their forces.New 'revolution'In the workshop, a garage space is crammed with experimental drones, some wit...