According to a report by Spain’s “Abecedario” website on July 13, the conflict in Ukraine is undergoing unprecedented changes. For the first time, Russian military personnel were captured without direct human infantry intervention, as part of a mission executed entirely by robotic forces. Even the escort of the prisoners was done by unmanned systems, eliminating the need for Ukrainian soldiers to step onto the battlefield. This represents an unprecedented milestone: a modern war marked by the capture of prisoners by machines.
On July 9, the Ukrainian 3rd Independent Assault Brigade announced via “Telegram” software that they had successfully forced Russian soldiers to surrender solely through drones and suicide-bombing ground combat platforms in the Kharkiv region. The announcement stated, “This is the first time in history that Russian soldiers have surrendered under purely robotic system attack.”
A machine dog equipped with military functions (photo from AFP)
The robotic force deployed explosive-laden vehicles and attacked Russian strongholds.
After destroying several shelters, one of the ground robot systems approached a partially collapsed shelter, forcing Russian soldiers to surrender voluntarily to avoid imminent explosions. The 3rd Independent Assault Brigade said, “When the next system approached a destroyed shelter, the enemy, in order to avoid an explosion, declared surrender.”
Without direct human intervention, the surviving Russian soldiers were subsequently escorted by multi-rotor drones to the Ukrainian army’s defensive lines and were taken into custody as prisoners of war according to military protocols.
The 3rd Independent Assault Brigade stated that the Russian positions in the area had previously successfully resisted two rounds of attacks launched by human troops. The use of unmanned systems allowed the Ukrainian forces to control these positions and nearby strategic objectives.
A think tank noted that although Ukraine has widely used unmanned boats and low-cost first-person view (FPV) drones, this operation marks a new level of complexity in technological warfare.
The think tank commented, “Robotic capture operations have strengthened Ukraine’s technology-based non-symmetric war strategy. This approach can reduce casualties and force the enemy to retreat without firing a shot.”
This development also reveals an unprecedented legal vacuum. The Geneva Conventions do not specify how to treat prisoners of war captured by autonomous systems, creating legal uncertainty and sparking new discussions on the role of machines in armed conflicts.
Defense experts from the United States, Israel, and other countries are analyzing such cases to integrate autonomous systems into tactical ground warfare theory as soon as possible.
The Russia-Ukraine conflict has drawn multifaceted negotiations among various parties.