Ukraine's 3rd Army Corps says its heavy drones delivered kamikaze unmanned ground vehicles more than 10 kilometers into Russian-held territory near Lyman, northern Donetsk Oblast, during the "second season" of an offensive codenamed Operation Vivaldi - the tactic's first confirmed combat use anywhere, according to Euromaidan Press. Brigadier General Andrii Biletskyi, the corps commander, called it the first time any force has air-dropped ground robotic systems into a battle: "The Third Army Corps was the first in the world to begin landing ground-based robotic systems. Our heavy bomber drones deliver suicide ground drones more than 10 kilometers into the enemy's rear."
The robots go first so the infantry doesn't have to
Rather than driving the ground robots across contested terrain to reach Russian positions, the corps carries them over the front line as airborne payloads and releases them closer to their targets, per Euromaidan Press. "In assault operations, drones and ground robots always go ahead of the infantry," Biletskyi said. One of the corps' soldiers put it more bluntly: wars are still won by infantry, "but we protect ours, so the robots go to the enemy first."
While the ground robots and strike drones hit Russian command posts, communications nodes, logistics, and river crossings, Ukrainian air defense and electronic warfare units threw what Euromaidan Press described as a protective dome over the battle area. That dome blinded Russian drones so they could not read the operation's design. Under its cover, Ukrainian infantry advanced and dug in on the ground they took.
125 square kilometers back, and a Russian encirclement plan disrupted
Named for Vivaldi's Four Seasons and run under an information blackout for months, the operation is planned in four phases; only two are complete. Across those two phases, the 3rd Army Corps and attached units have retaken more than 125 square kilometers near Lyman, about half of it de-occupied outright, per Euromaidan Press. United24 Media reports the corps freed the villages of Shandryholove and Derylove and took control of Drobysheve.
The corps has inflicted more than 3,000 casualties on Russian forces over the two phases, per Euromaidan Press. United24 Media reports the corps faces Russia's 20th Army, 25th Army, and 1st Tank Army there, with roughly 800 of the total casualties coming in the latest phase alone.
The Institute for the Study of War has assessed that the operation disrupted Russia's plan to encircle the fortified belt of Donetsk cities, and that it has kept Russia from shifting significant forces to the Kupiansk front, according to Euromaidan Press.
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