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SOLDIERS on Ukraine’s front line are using remote controlled trucks as a lifeline for supplies.
Increasing numbers of enemy aerial drones have made vital supply runs even more deadly.
So troops have turned to unmanned ground vehicles, or UGVs, to run the gauntlet through the “death zone” behind the front.
They have also used the vehicles to evacuate wounded soldiers.
A serviceman codenamed Hornet told us this week: “All the drones in the sky mean we need to use drones on the ground. They save lives — it is that simple.
“Why risk a soldier’s life unnecessarily when we can use a drone?
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“These drones save people. These drones save money.”
The Sun joined soldiers in the outskirts of the bomb-blitzed city of Kharkiv as they launched resupply missions under cover of darkness.
Hornet, a lorry dispatcher before the war, said both sides can see and strike almost anything that moves up to 12 miles behind the front.
The risk to troops in rural positions has increased since both sides introduced fibre optic drones which are immune to electronic jamming.
They spool out a thread of fibre optic wire, like fishing line, so they remain tethered to their controller as they fly up to 25 miles to targets.
Hornet’s fleet of ground drones range from vehicles the size of a carry-on suitcase to small vans.
Some have wheels or tracks. Some are designed to lay landmines.
Others can carry grenade launchers and heavy machine guns.
The largest, the Tor 1000, can carry up to 800kg of cargo and travel almost 25 miles at speeds of up to 10mph.
We watched as troops loaded a Tor 1000 with supplies including wooden pallets, to act as duckboards in wet trenches, batteries for radios and a Vampire drone that can carry five or six mortar bombs.
All the drones in the sky mean we need to use drones on the ground. They save lives — it is that simple
A serviceman codenamed Hornet
The UGV was on a trailer hitched behind a 4×4 as we drove in convoy to the launch point, along sections of road under anti-drone netting.
As we reached the secret spot the soldiers unhitched the trailer ramp under the glow of head torches and the UGV juddered into life.
It was then under control of their comrades in a command bunker as it disappeared into the darkness.
Later, we met the UGV drivers controlling trucks with games consoles.
They included a doctor, codenamed Turok, a US-born rap music producer, known as Producer, and a former trooper codenamed Nike.
Nike, 25, said: “I have seen too many people die. I like the idea of reducing the number who need to be on the front lines.”
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Turok, 39, said he felt more useful as a drone operator than a dermatologist.
Producer, who left New York to defend his parents’ homeland, said: “Every time we do a mission it means a person doesn’t have to take that risk. This is the future.”
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