Ukrainian forces are repurposing assault robots for logistics missions because of supply bot shortages

Ukrainian forces are taking some of the ground robots designed for assault missions and repurposing them for logistics as they face shortages of these critical machines, unit commanders told Business Insider.

Front-line logistics have become increasingly difficult in Ukraine as drones constantly monitor the battlefield. Supply runs can be deadly for soldiers, so a growing number are being handled by uncrewed ground vehicles (UGVs).

The most common missions for ground robots right now are logistics, said the commander of a UGV unit in the Lava Regiment of Ukraine's 2nd "Khartia" Corps, who requested to be identified by his call sign Mathematician for security reasons.

Mathematician said finding enough robots for these missions is the "biggest problem." His repurposes robots armed with machine guns — typically sent on assault missions — for logistics to make up for the deficit, but that comes at a different operational cost.

"We cannot be doing some fire support missions because we don't have enough UGVs," he said.

Dozor, the commander of a UGV regiment in the Svoboda Battalion of Ukraine's Rubizh Brigade, agreed with the assessment that units are facing a shortage of available ground robots. He requested to be identified by his call sign for security reasons.

Dozor said all logistics and casualty evacuation in the kill zone — an area surrounding the front lines that's heavily saturated with drones — are being carried out by ground robots.

His unit uses "universal platforms and appropriate modules that can be quickly removed or installed," he said, explaining that an assault robot can be tasked with logistics in two hours. "This helps to perform any tasks and quickly prepare robots for them."

Ukrainian officials have said that they want robots to handle 100% of battlefield logistics — missions that have become particularly deadly for soldiers as the kill zone continues to expand.

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Ground robots are the centerpiece of this strategy and have become a priority investment for Ukraine and defense manufacturers this year.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy set a target for companies to produce 50,000 by the end of 2026, and soldiers are buying record numbers of ground robots from Kyiv's digital weapons marketplace.

Ukraine's state-backed innovation platform Brave1 said last week that the military has ordered more than 3,000 robots from its marketplace since it launched last year, including over 640 units in July.

Ukraine's defense ministry said in late July that Kyiv had contracted more than 22,000 ground robots since the start of 2026, nearly double last year's total.

But Mathematician said that more robots are still needed, adding that if companies can mass-produce cheaper UGVs for logistics, this could free up machines initially designed for assault to do that.

Ground robots have relatively short lifetimes on the front lines and are viewed by Ukrainian commanders as expendable, though they often praise the machines for their ability to keep soldiers out of harm's way.

Mathematician said that the lifespan of a logistics robot is decreasing "very rapidly." He said the number of missions that UGVs can survive depends on where along the front lines they're operating.

In Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv region, for instance, a robot might survive only three or four missions; in other areas, it could survive more — maybe 15 or 20.

Ground robots have carried out more than 66,000 missions so far this year, "taking on the riskiest" logistics and evacuation tasks, Ukraine's defense ministry said in late July.

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