In late autumn, against the backdrop of morning mist, the group is already entrenching itself after the assault. One is wounded with a broken foot. He won’t make it on his own. The pickup truck can’t reach it – between it and the evacuation are four kilometers of broken lunar surface, where there used to be a dirt road, and now there are holes from shelling, mud, and worn-out grass. The enemy positions are a hundred meters away. The wounded man whispers the coordinates into the walkie-talkie. The commander, with the soldier’s consent, sends a ground drone to pick him up.
"After a few minutes, the "Targan" robot sets off. Comrades help it rise and secure itself on the platform. The fighters remain in their positions, suppressing enemy fire," recalls Andriy "Mathematician", the head of the ground robotic complexes (NRC) department of the 13th brigade of the Charter National Guard, in a conversation with Defence journalist.
An hour later, the wounded man is almost at the spot where a pickup truck can take him to the stabilization point. But on the last stretch of the journey, one wheel of the drone gets stuck in a hole and starts to skid.
"We already thought that the robot would completely get stuck. Everyone was as tense as possible, because if it didn't leave, the wounded man would be left alone, in an open field," says "Mathematician." "But the drone got out on its own, the wounded man was taken out, and his leg was saved."
Charter actively uses ground robots to perform various tasks. These are large wheeled drones that can overcome difficult terrain and withstand some damage.
"Drones for evacuation have become a specific solution that is used only when there is nothing else. This is because drones have a low speed - an average of 5-10 km/h, a little faster than on foot. Although it should be 20-30 km/h," says "Mathematician".
The brigade has dozens of drones, but so far only a few are suitable for evacuation. According to "Mathematics", most of the robots available on the market often get stuck on broken terrain. The enemy can target the moment a wounded person is loaded onto the platform, so planning such operations is quite complicated. Not all commanders are ready to launch such equipment if there is an alternative traditional and proven means.
Evacuation is divided into four stages. The first, the most difficult, is the removal of a soldier from the shelling zone to a temporary storage point for the wounded. The commander is solely responsible for this. Medics are involved from the moment the wounded person is delivered to the point.
For evacuation, they calculate the route and maneuvers to distract the enemy. Ground drones are currently used only in one case - when there is no other way. But the technology is developing and has every chance of entering the everyday life of evacuation groups.
What should a good evacuation robot be like?
One of the deterrents to the spread of this practice is the technical part. Ukrainian military robots are mostly not ready to perform such missions.
The Charter believes that the evacuation robot should be a separate machine, not a compromise version of a logistics drone. It needs shock absorption, a closed capsule, powerful communication, armor and speed. But so far there are not enough even high-quality logistics platforms, so the more or less mass use of NRCs for evacuation will have to wait another six months or a year at best.
As of the beginning of 2025, the Ministry of Defense has approved for operation about 80 samples of ground robotic complexes of various types. And 250 such developments have been registered on the Brave1 state cluster.
Among them are wheeled and tracked chassis of various sizes and carrying capacities. They operate on electric batteries, but there are also diesel engines. Drones are controlled remotely via radio, GPS, Starlink or fiber optic cable.
Today, only a few of these hundreds of drone models are actually suitable for evacuating the wounded. But there are cases when the military manages to do so.
"After one of the battles, our seriously wounded soldier found himself in a position that was no longer reachable - neither on foot nor by armored vehicles. The path to the evacuation point was under enemy control. Then they got the Vepr NRC for evacuation," Oleksandr Yabcanka, head of the robotic systems service of the Da Vinci Wolves battalion, tells Oborontsi.
"Vepr" works on tracks, and its trailer, on which the wounded man rides, is on wheels. It has a camera in front and works on radio control. An evacuation trailer was attached to the drone and they set off along the same route. The enemy did not notice. The wounded man was loaded by his comrades into the position, and the drone successfully took him out.
"This saved not only his life, but also those who would have had to carry him. Because 4-6 people carry the wounded man, and this is a concentration of infantry," Yabcanka notes.
In his opinion, among the mandatory requirements for a good evacuation robot should be good shock absorption, a closed capsule for the wounded, armor, sufficiently high speed, and powerful communication.
"Imagine a wounded person on board, losing consciousness, and the drone stops in the middle of a field without communication. It's no longer a drone, it's a coffin. Most drones don't have a specialized capsule that would protect against enemy drones and debris. The wounded travel twisted because there's not enough space," says Yabcanka.
The Da Vinci Wolves battalion currently uses the Vepr, Lynx, Termit, and Ratel ground drones. They use the Vepr and an older version of the Lynx to evacuate the wounded, while the Termit is used primarily to remove the bodies of the dead.
On future ground evacuation platforms, the military wants to have a more powerful repeater (a device that transmits a signal between the operator and the drone when direct communication is difficult or impossible).
"There are different types of control. You can transmit only the control over the connection, and have the image separately, from another drone. Or you can transmit everything together: both the image and the control, but then you need a more powerful repeater," says Yabcanka.
The 68th Separate Jaeger Brigade is still categorically refusing to evacuate the wounded using ground drones. They have homemade vehicles at their disposal that are used only for logistics.
"It's a steel box controlled by FPV. The army doesn't offer us any other solutions. It crawls at the speed of a pedestrian, and the minimum speed should have been at least 30 km/h so as not to be a target. Another difficulty is the lack of a modular design. It's not easy to assemble it or change the battery at night without light. Real evacuation drones cost like a Lexus, and upgrading existing ones also requires significant personal investments - this is also a problem," Pavlo Vyshebaba, a mortarman from the Minotaur unit, tells Oborontsi.
According to him, evacuation drones must have active suspension, because carrying a wounded person on wheels or tracks tightly welded to the body is the same as dragging him across the terrain on a sheet of metal. The model must also have at least three communication options with the ability to switch them.
According to Maksym Vasylchenko, director of Tencore, who is involved in developing standards for evacuation platforms within the framework of the specialized association of NRC manufacturers, future requirements for evacuation robots will include parameters of armor, maneuverability, range, and communication quality. The maximum speed must be at least 15 km/h. And of course, smooth running.
But so far, such requirements are not applied in practice - except in the form of recommendations for manufacturers.
A robot with an internal combustion engine and a speed of 70 km/h
While models on the market are largely "raw," the military of the First Separate Medical Battalion has developed its own evacuation robot.
"The ready-made models on the market had technical limitations or were not intended for evacuating the wounded. We created our own machine with an ATV chassis and an internal combustion engine. After all, electric platforms constantly need charging, are limited in time of use and speed," Volodymyr Koval from the 1st medical battalion tells "Oborontsi". The military called their drone MAUL.
It has not yet been codified by the Ministry of Defense, but is already actively used. Other units are also ordering it, in particular, the collection is currently underway for the medical services of the "Third Assault", "Azov" and "Da Vinci Wolves".
MAUL evacuation robot
"Maul can reach speeds of up to 70 km/h, has a capsule for the wounded, withstood a hit by an FPV drone and returned. It has now been successfully tested in combat conditions in terms of performing logistical tasks," the unit said.
The drone typically works in tandem with a UAV for external visual control. Due to electronic warfare and the large number of enemy FPV drones, the signal is often jammed, so alternative types of communication are currently being tested.
The unit has a separate NRC company and its own fleet of robotic platforms. Everyone assembles them on their own, but plans to scale with others to help neighboring units. The cost of one MAUL ranges from 1 to 1.5 million UAH, depending on the type of communication.
Solutions that already work
"We created a multifunctional drone back in November 2022 - it was one of the first ground-based drones to start operating at the front. Initially, it was used as a target for sniper training - with heating and armor to simulate combat conditions. At the front, it was able to pull out a shot-down Mitsubishi L200 with fighters," Andriy, one of the developers of the Vepr NRC, told Oborontsi.
As of today, the Vepr is operating in over 20 units, including the Da Vinci Wolves, Charter, 92nd, 109th, and 110th brigades – near Avdiivka, Bakhmut, and near Zaporizhzhia. In total, about 300 vehicles were transferred to the front. For example, the Da Vinci Wolves carried out over 50 successful evacuations using the Vepr. One such case was near Avdiivka – the drone withstood 16 hits from FPV drones and returned with a wounded man.
According to the developer, the "Vepr" is fully armored: the steel can withstand 5.45 and 7.62 calibers. It has a tracked base, and the carriage on which the wounded are carried is wheeled. The weight of the drone itself is 300 kg, it pulls 250 kg on itself, another 200 kg on the carriage. Operating speed is 7.5 km/h. It works up to 5 hours without recharging. Control is via a remote control, the signal is transmitted by radio waves. There is a built-in camera and a return function using GPS.
"We are currently working on a new platform - it will be more powerful, with higher ground clearance and better protection for the wounded. We are also testing new options for wheels, shock absorption, and connections," the developer adds.
Other manufacturers have also considered developing specialized medical evacuation platforms.
"We are preparing a specialized product intended exclusively for evacuation. It will not be universal - only for the wounded. The functions will include returning to the starting point. But the situation on the ground is changing dynamically - shelling, FPV. The robot may not be able to return along the same path. Therefore, the main thing is communication and range to ensure that the wounded person can be taken out. A capsule for a person will also be provided - to protect against debris and debris. The approximate price of the new product will be from 30 to 50 thousand US dollars, half of which is the cost of high-quality communication," Maksym Vasylchenko, director of Tencore, the manufacturer of the TerMIT NRC , tells Oborontsi .
Thermit ground robots are already used in over 50 military units, including the Third Assault Brigade, 92, 82, 54, 36, 95, 4, K2, and other brigades. They have already evacuated dozens of wounded and hundreds of dead.
"We constantly receive criticism from the military. Their main requirement is that the product go straight into battle out of the box. They also want less bureaucracy, easier maintenance, better equipment, for example, power sources for control stations. And of course, they want to participate in the codification of products, because it is the military that will then use the product. The main advantage of any ground drone on the battlefield is lives saved. Even if you look at it purely from an economic point of view, one robot costs the state 12-15 thousand US dollars, and the life of a soldier - 15 million hryvnias," says Vasylchenko.
Even if the technology for evacuation drones remains raw, it is not standing still. The military and manufacturers have been developing their products for the past year and are already saving many lives on the front lines, even if it is not about evacuation, but about other tasks.
In the "K2" unit, ground drones are also used only for logistics, the head of the NRC direction, a military man with the pseudonym "Sever", told "Oborontsi". In the future, they are going to switch to mining using NRCs and use them as "kamikazes". There have also been cases of their use for evacuating property from positions. This can also be called saving people's lives, because in one go you can take out up to a ton of things without endangering the driver.
In 2025, the state is going to supply 15 thousand military robots of various types, which is many times more than in the previous year. At the same time, professional NRC operators and staff structures specializing in this technology are just beginning to appear in large numbers in the units. So, now we are only at the very beginning of the path, and in the future Ukraine will definitely become an example of the use of military robots for allied armies.