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THEGUARDIAN.COM • 2026-04-04

‘The frontline is like Terminator’: fighting robots give Ukraine hope in war with Russia

Use of unmanned ground vehicles has grown exponentially since 2024.

Turning the war into a technological contest.  Victor Pavlov, a lieutenant with Ukraine's 3rd army corps.  Showed off Ukraine's newest and most versatile weapon: a battery-powered land robot.  The unmanned ground vehicles come in various shapes and sizes. One runs on caterpillar tracks and resembles a roofless milk float. Another has wheels and antennas. A third carries anti-tank mines. Since spring 2024 their use has grown exponentially.  "This is what modern warfare looks like. Armies everywhere will have to robotise," said Pavlov.

So, everybody hides in bunkers while the robots duke it out, blowing up the infrastructure on both sides until the food & water in the bunkers runs out.  Modern siege warfare essentially.  No dead grunts, no death at all until the population starts dying from thirst and starvation.

On the upside, much smaller armies of meat packages necessary and no draft.  Downside, without the blood and guts and death, there's less revulsion towards war, at least as long as the food and water holds out.  Also, much higher costs for rebuilding after the war is over, since you have far more destruction of infrastructure.

One envisions a future where only the Elite survive in their compounds, each with their own armies of air, land and sea drones to fight and farming and worker robots growing the food and building toys for peacetime and soldier robots during wartime.

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[K-Dog]

everybody hides in bunkers while the robots duke it out,

No dead grunts, but plenty of dead civilians.  War will always escalate to death.  I do not see a way around that fact.  Ukraine has lost half their young men.  Russia has lost more men in total, but Russia is more able to absorb losses.  Robot dog and pony shows sort of push those facts under the carpet.  Make the death invisible,  and there will be more of it. 

Trump's war is like no war that America has fought since the Mexican American War of 1846.  That too was raw aggression.  And the US would probably owe reparations to Mexico if that war had happened in the 20th century.  But that was then and this is now.

This war is an Attila the Hun war.  Rape and pillage by America in a country that only has defensive weapons.  We are the Hun.  America kills because it can, and there is no other reason.  Only fools think there is another reason.

One envisions a future where only the Elite survive in their compounds, each with their own armies of air, land and sea drones to fight and farming and worker robots growing the food and building toys for peacetime and soldier robots during wartime.

Entropy says no.  We could make a good movie about this, but the reality is we are now experiencing the collapse of complex civilization.  Trump puts America in the final act.

[RE]

Well, at least compared to Vietnam so far the number of deaths has been fewer.  They used to report 1000s daily back then.  So far supposedly its around 2000 for the whole 5 weeks.

I don't really believe in the futurist robot war idea, but I'm sure Elon does.

RE