Former Ukrainian Defense Minister Fedorov pitches a private-sector robot army
Former Ukrainian defense minister Mykhailo Fedorov launched a private initiative to fund battlefield robots, citing drones now performing 95% of target engagements.
Speaking at IT Arena 2026 in Lviv, Mykhailo Fedorov said drones now account for over 95% of Ukrainian target engagements and that Ukraine hosts more than 700 drone manufacturers. His 'Army of Robots' program will invest in private defense tech firms, launch tech projects, and test systems with the military at scale. The UK has already purchased Ukraine's AI combat data as an export product. Whether the robots would make autonomous attack decisions remains unclear.
- Drones account for over 95% of Ukrainian target engagements, per Fedorov
- 'Army of Robots' private program will fund defense tech firms and military testing
- Ukraine has 700+ drone manufacturers; UK bought its AI combat data
- Autonomous attack decision-making by the robots remains unspecified
Full article352 words · extracted from the-decoder.com · click to collapse
Drones now account for more than 95 percent of all target engagements, according to former Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov. He wants to push that shift toward full battlefield robotics.
Fedorov shared the figure at IT Arena 2026 in Lviv. Ukraine now has more than 700 drone manufacturers, he said, though he didn't specify what time period or operations the number covers. The country has long been a testing ground for AI-powered warfare, especially drones. The AI combat data from those operations has even become an export product, with the UK as the first buyer.
Fedorov announces private-sector push for a robot army
The announcement shows how the Ukraine war has reshaped the public conversation around military robotics. While nations keep debating limits on autonomous weapons at the UN, Fedorov is openly calling for "full-scale battlefield robotisation," backing that claim with a militaristic trailer and an "Army of Robots" website for his private program.
The project would run on an ecosystem of private defense tech firms. Fedorov plans to invest in companies, launch his own tech projects, and test working systems with the military at scale. "Robots should fight, not people," he wrote on Telegram. Whether those robots would also make attack decisions on their own remains unclear, though with drones, that's reportedly already happening.
Fedorov's push doubles as psychological warfare, meant to intimidate Russia and attract investors. The humanoid robots in the trailer are nowhere near as battle-ready as drones and may not make military sense at all. Still, the leap from UN ban talks to a private combat robot initiative shows how fast the ground has shifted on autonomous weapons. This kind of aggressive video PR isn't new. Almost nine years ago, the Future of Life Institute released "Slaughterbots", a film just as dramatic but with the opposite goal: warning against autonomous combat robots.
AI News Without the Hype – Curated by Humans
Subscribe to THE DECODER for ad-free reading, a weekly AI newsletter, our exclusive "AI Radar" frontier report six times a year, full archive access, and access to our comment section.