Mykhailo Fedorovuntil recently Minister of Defense of Ukrainehas presented a project called ‘Robot Army’ what does he intend use humanoid robots and other autonomous systems instead of soldiers for some of the most dangerous tasks on the front. The most striking objective is that one of these humanoids kills a Russian soldier within six months of the program’s launch.
Fedorov announced the initiative on September 26 during the IT Arena technology conference in Lviv, western Ukraine, and through a publication on LinkedIn in which he describes her as the next stage of the technological approach that gave rise to the Drone Army. This program was born in 2022, when he was Minister of Digital Transformation, and over the years has turned drones into the central tool of Ukrainian defense. Fedorov, known in his country for having promoted the digitalization of the State, assumed the Defense portfolio at the beginning of 2026. From that position extended the logic of rapid experimentation and large-scale production to war.
According to Fedorov, drones already represent more than 95% of attacks in Ukraine and in the country they operate more than 700 manufacturers of these devices. What he proposes now is to transfer that level of experimentation and production to terrestrial robotics.
We’re launching the Army of Robots.
In 2022, we launched the Army of Drones. Today, drones account for over 95% of battlefield strikes, and Ukraine has more than 700 UAV manufacturers.
Now we need the next technological breakthrough: the robotization of warfare.
The goal is… pic.twitter.com/UtaDuV4LXT
— Mykhailo Fedorov (@FedorovMykhailo) September 26, 2026
The Robot Army will focus on physical artificial intelligence, robotics and autonomous systemswith applications that go from logistics and reconnaissance to mine operations and combat. At the moment it is an initiative in the early phase for which Fedorov seeks engineers, robotics teams, technology companies and investors to lift the ecosystem. It will not be a single company but a network that combines private capital, research and development and tests with the military that will include humanoids alongside aerial drones, unmanned ground vehicles and other unmanned weapons.
The idea goes beyond the wheeled or tracked vehicles that are already used on the front, because Fedorov wants humanoids capable of doing tasks alongside the rest of the autonomous systems. Recharge weapons, change batteries, install sensors, distribute ammunition or evacuate wounded are among those functions. The approach contemplates that the robots enter dangerous areas when the sensors detect a threat, so that the soldiers’ exposure to direct fire is reduced. Among the potential missions also appear the laying and clearing mines, defending positions and attacking.
The first objective it has set is for a humanoid to kill a Russian soldier within six months after the start of the program, according to Ukrainska Pravda, and the second will arrive within a year with a first operation that combines robots and drones communicating with each other through software and algorithms. Fedorov summarizes the philosophy of the project in ‘make robots fight instead of people’.
Regarding how he plans to sustain the project, Fedorov places the technological race with Moscow as the biggest obstacle. ‘We will invest in defense technology companies, launch our own technology projects, create R&D capabilities, test solutions alongside the military and scale as quickly as possible what works on the battlefield. Our biggest challenge is that Russia has learned to copy and scale military technologies quickly. That means we must always create the next technological cycle before the enemy‘, he writes on the social network.
This initiative adds to Fedorov’s turn towards the private defense sector after leaving the Government last July, which includes a technology company with Alex KarpCEO of Palantiras the first major investor and whose objective is to convert the Ukrainian experience in technological warfare into products and systems.