Russian forces have formed specialised aerial reconnaissance and strike UAV crews that track down and destroy only robotic systems delivering ammunition, water and food to forward positions. This was reported by the Orion unit — the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine’s rapid response border command within the “Revenge” brigade of the Offensive Guard, operating on the Southern Kupiansk axis.
“The enemy hunts our hardware more fiercely than armoured vehicles, because they understand: our robots make their war-of-attrition tactics pointless,” says Vladyslav Zolotarov, an officer in the unit headquarters’ command group.
The Orion unit has been carrying out frontline tasks since 2014. It moved into the Kupiansk sector in May 2025. The unit operates a mixed fleet of wheeled and tracked ground robotic systems. According to the unit, in August 2026 Orion ranked first for effectiveness in the DELTA system among units in its sector. Over the month, Orion’s fighters carried out 85 combat missions, including delivering 30,257 kilograms of cargo to forward positions.
Orion also spoke separately about four successful evacuation missions using ground robotic systems. One case occurred in September near Kupiansk: a serviceman at an outlying position suffered an acute flare-up of a stomach ulcer with internal bleeding, and approaching with conventional vehicles would have meant taking an FPV drone hit. A robotic platform was sent to retrieve him; it passed through the shelled zone and delivered him to medics.
As a reminder, according to DELTA data, from the start of 2026 to early September, around 112,000 logistics and evacuation missions by ground robotic systems were recorded. In particular, ground robotic systems deliver ammunition, water and food to positions and also evacuate wounded Ukrainian defenders. The number of tasks carried out increased month by month, and in August ground robotic systems completed 3.3 times more logistics and evacuation missions than in January.
Earlier, the Ministry of Defence stressed that the need for ground robotic systems is steadily growing. To significantly expand their use along the front line, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence has substantially increased procurement volumes and the defined level of demand for ground robotic systems this year.
In particular, more than 22,000 units of ground robotic systems have already been contracted, almost double the figure for the entire previous year. Servicemen have also already ordered ground robotic systems worth nearly 1.9 billion hryvnias via the Brave1 Market marketplace under the eBaly programme.