Ukraine ground robots are being fitted with mobile weapons turrets and sent toward enemy lines to intercept the small infiltration teams Russia uses to creep through Ukrainian defences, arms maker Frontline Robotics has told Business Insider.
The company’s ‘Buria’ turret, originally designed as a static remote weapon station, can now be bolted onto ground robots and driven autonomously toward Russian positions. Mykyta Rozhkov, Frontline Robotics’ chief business development officer, described the original turret as ‘basically a metal robotic arm for a grenade launcher’ that was first deployed in fixed, concealed positions. Now the system has been adapted for movement.
‘Right now we put our robotic arm on the robotic vehicle and then the two operators, 20, 40, 50 kilometers out of the zone, are driving it through the forest lines and trying to stop these small groups penetrating even further into our defense,’ Rozhkov said.
What the Buria Turret Brings to Ukraine Ground Robots
The Buria can operate autonomously for up to 48 hours, stores data on up to 256 targets, and uses an integrated ballistic calculator, according to Ukrainska Pravda. Its reported engagement range reaches up to 2 km. When mounted on EDR Magazine reports the integration enables precise target engagement at distances of up to 1,100 metres.
Live-fire trials have validated the combination. Army Technology reported that Frontline Robotics and Milrem Robotics conducted a joint validation exercise integrating the Buria remote weapon station, equipped with a 40mm automatic grenade launcher, onto Milrem’s THeMIS unmanned ground vehicle.
Frontline Robotics is not the only Ukrainian firm pursuing this approach. Business Insider reported that Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence approved DevDroid’s Droid NW 40 for service on 23 December, describing it as the first codified Ukrainian reconnaissance-and-strike unmanned ground vehicle adapted to mount a 40mm automatic grenade launcher, either the US-made Mk-19 or the Ukrainian-made AGL-53. Oleg Fedoryshyn, DevDroid’s director of R&D, said the system can ‘save people’s lives’ by allowing soldiers to attack Russian forces with powerful weapons without getting close to the target.
Why Russia’s Infiltration Tactics Are Driving the Push
Russian infiltration groups have become one of Moscow’s primary methods of advance. Small teams move across front lines in an effort to avoid drone detection, aiming to seize Ukrainian positions or disrupt defences. The front lines are so saturated with aerial surveillance that officials describe a ‘kill zone’ around them, making large troop and armoured vehicle movements highly dangerous for both sides.
Tanks and armoured vehicles have struggled in this environment, partly because they are easily spotted from above. Ground robots offer a different calculus: if destroyed, they are cheaper and faster to replace than armoured vehicles, and no soldiers are killed in the process. Oleksandr Yabchanka, head of robotic systems for Ukraine’s Da Vinci Wolves Battalion, previously told Business Insider that armed robots are especially valuable when they can move, because they can enter Russian trenches, close in on enemy positions, and keep operating under heavy fire. When Russian troops return fire toward the source of an attack, a robot that can change position offers a significant advantage without exposing Ukrainian soldiers.
Rozhkov said Frontline Robotics makes small changes to its products up to 20 times a month and major updates every six months, drawing on a constant stream of frontline feedback. ‘We don’t even have to ask them for the feedback. It goes directly 24/7 into our inbox,’ he said. He described Ukrainian manufacturers as having an ‘unfair advantage’ because of their proximity to battlefield conditions and the soldiers using the equipment.
The Scale of Ukraine’s Robot Deployment
The broader roll-out of ground robots in Ukraine has accelerated rapidly. Monthly logistics and evacuation missions rose from more than 7,500 in January 2026 to over 14,000 in May 2026, while the number of military units operating ground robots nearly doubled from 117 to 230, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence as reported by UNITED24 Media on 10 June 2026. Ukraine’s defence minister said the military had completed more than 50,000 logistics and evacuation missions with ground robots since the start of the year, a sharp increase from the 2,000 missions recorded in the six months leading up to December.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence also plans to contract 25,000 ground robotic systems during the first half of 2026, with systems being gradually delivered to the front, UNITED24 Media reported.
Rozhkov said the ultimate aim is to defend areas ‘without humans.’ ‘And this is really our important mission in order to keep our soldiers safe,’ he said.
The next test of that ambition will come as Ukraine moves from individual unit deployments toward the kind of coordinated robot-and-drone assault that, in one recent operation, captured a Russian position without any infantry involvement at all.