Chris Panella
Mon, July 13, 2026
Ukrainian forces sailed a naval drone carrying a ground robot into Russian-held territory.
Ukraine said it was the first known fully robotic amphibious assault mission.
Video footage shows the ground robot firing its machine gun at a target.
Ukraine's military launched a fully robotic amphibious assault, using a naval drone to transport a ground robot into Russian-occupied territory.
Ukraine said the robotic deployment was the first known combat mission of its type. It's the latest example of how uncrewed systems can be employed in highly dangerous situations and environments instead of troops, keeping humans out of harm's way.
On Monday, Ukraine's 123rd Separate Territorial Defense Brigade announced it had executed the mission, revealing that it had remotely guided a naval drone across the Black Sea to a position behind Russian lines on the Kinburn Spit at the end of Ukraine's Kinburn Peninsula. The peninsula is directly west of Kherson. Ukrainian officials have called this area a key strategic foothold for Russian forces to restrict maritime access to the Black Sea.
When the Ukrainian naval drone reached the coast, it deployed a ground robot, an uncrewed ground vehicle. Per footage shared by the 123rd on Telegram, the ground drone was wielding a mounted machine gun. Once it reached the shore, the drone began firing shots at an unidentified target. Ukraine didn't identify which robotic platforms were involved in the amphibious assault, their capabilities, or the mission objective.
The brigade said in its statement that this was "the first known combat mission of this format in the world," adding that "the ground robotic complex was delivered to the enemy shore using an unmanned maritime platform, landed on occupied Ukrainian territory, and employed to accomplish a combat task."
The use of drones for this amphibious assault is a significant development in the use of uncrewed systems in the war. Ukraine has used naval drones to target Russian Black Sea Fleet ships and uncrewed ground vehicles for front-line missions that are too deadly for human soldiers. Now, it's merging the two, as it has with naval drones and first-person-view drones, among other uncrewed systems.
Ground robots, or uncrewed ground vehicles, are fast becoming the face of Ukrainian battlefield logistics and missions. As mines, artillery, and drone-saturated skies threaten troops, Ukraine has focused on building more drone vehicles that can be remotely operated to transport ammunition and supplies, evacuate wounded troops, lay mines, launch other drones, or attack.
Ukraine said in April it cleared Russian-held territory using only ground robots and drones for the first time.
The rising reliance on these systems is changing how Ukrainian drone manufacturers are building new vehicles. They're focusing on low-cost systems that can be deployed in large numbers should they be targeted and destroyed.
Russian Ministry of Defense Records Sharp Increase in Ukrainian Drone Strikes
Will Neal
Mon, July 13, 2026
The Daily Beast
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
Vladimir Putin's own military has let slip just how much damage Ukraine's devastating drone strikes are doing to Russia.
Russian Defense Ministry briefings, compiled by state news agency RIA Novosti, reveal that Putin's regime has been forced to shoot down a staggering 64,000 Ukrainian drones over its own territory during the first six months of this year.
Total downings have surged across the spring, rising from around 5,400 in January to an astonishing high of 18,000 in June.
Kyiv's fast-growing drone fleet has hammered oil refineries and energy sites hundreds of miles beyond the frontline and deep into Russia.
The barrage has knocked more than 25 percent of refining capacity offline, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, triggering a spiraling fuel crisis that has forced the Kremlin to ration supplies and left citizens often waiting in lines outside gas stations for up to two days.
By late June, rationing was in place across 56 regions, according to independent outlet Mediazona. Putin, 73, has said his government is racing to stabilize supplies as Moscow moves to halt diesel exports.
The mounting damage has shifted Washington's posture. President Donald Trump, 80, who has otherwise proven hostile toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 48, threw his weight behind the deep strikes during last week's NATO summit in Turkey. Trump called the attacks "an escalation that could help lead to an end" to the war.
Trump vowed to end the now four-year conflict within 24 hours of retaking office. Eighteen months in, no settlement exists.
He and Putin are understood to have spoken by phone in early July, but diplomacy has largely stalled as the White House remains preoccupied with ending Trump's own war with Iran.
The White House has its own fuel headache. U.S. gas prices have climbed back to $3.88 a gallon, marking their sharpest weekly jump since mid-May, after Trump reignited tensions with Iran last week.
Will Neal
Mon, July 13, 2026
The Daily Beast
Photo Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/The Daily Beast/Getty/Reuters
Vladimir Putin's own military has let slip just how much damage Ukraine's devastating drone strikes are doing to Russia.
Russian Defense Ministry briefings, compiled by state news agency RIA Novosti, reveal that Putin's regime has been forced to shoot down a staggering 64,000 Ukrainian drones over its own territory during the first six months of this year.
Total downings have surged across the spring, rising from around 5,400 in January to an astonishing high of 18,000 in June.
Kyiv's fast-growing drone fleet has hammered oil refineries and energy sites hundreds of miles beyond the frontline and deep into Russia.
The barrage has knocked more than 25 percent of refining capacity offline, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday, triggering a spiraling fuel crisis that has forced the Kremlin to ration supplies and left citizens often waiting in lines outside gas stations for up to two days.
By late June, rationing was in place across 56 regions, according to independent outlet Mediazona. Putin, 73, has said his government is racing to stabilize supplies as Moscow moves to halt diesel exports.
The mounting damage has shifted Washington's posture. President Donald Trump, 80, who has otherwise proven hostile toward Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, 48, threw his weight behind the deep strikes during last week's NATO summit in Turkey. Trump called the attacks "an escalation that could help lead to an end" to the war.
Trump vowed to end the now four-year conflict within 24 hours of retaking office. Eighteen months in, no settlement exists.
He and Putin are understood to have spoken by phone in early July, but diplomacy has largely stalled as the White House remains preoccupied with ending Trump's own war with Iran.
The White House has its own fuel headache. U.S. gas prices have climbed back to $3.88 a gallon, marking their sharpest weekly jump since mid-May, after Trump reignited tensions with Iran last week.
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