Ukraine expects the war to see exponentially more 'iron soldiers,' or ground drones with guns that can fill troop roles

• Ukraine's intelligence chief predicted that ground drones in battle will increase "in the order of tens" this year.
• Kyrylo Budanov said much of Ukraine's impetus for these drones is to avoid sending troops to die.

Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov expects the war to enter a new phase — one that will see far more land-based drones replacing soldiers on the front lines.

In an interview last weekend at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv, Budanov said the unmanned tech is new but progressing.

"These are just emerging things," he said, per a translation provided by the conference. "In this calendar year, I think the number of those robot systems will grow, grow immensely in the order of tens."

Budanov said drone innovation was driven simply by a human desire to not die.

"People are hesitant to go into battle, so if you can send a drone, 10 drones, or one soldier, you'll always choose to send 10 drones," he added, per another translation from The New Voice of Ukraine.

The intelligence chief foresaw both warring nations developing countermeasures to ground-based drones, but said it's clear unmanned vehicles will be a "trademark" in military innovation for the next two to three decades.

"You can build another drone of 10, but lives are priceless. This is the most important thing," he added.

Ukraine has been testing ground-based drones armed with explosives and turrets, intermittently releasing footage of what it says can range from "kamikaze" vehicles to remote guns.

The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said in May that it had officially approved 10 "robotic complexes" for use in its military, mentioning "ground-based robotic platforms" that can be used to carry weapons or fire them.

Dubbing the platforms "iron soldiers" in July, the ministry said it aimed to have to drones fulfill combat orders for troops, and mentioned robots that can act as sappers, recon, gun platforms, and logistics assistants.

Russia has also been seen using unmanned ground platforms, such as two drones armed with AGS-17 grenade launchers spotted in March.

Ukraine expects to build over 1 million drones in 2024 after galvanizing production late last year. This is an exponential leap in production since the war began in early 2022.

Kyiv said it had produced 50 times more drones in December alone compared to the entirety of the war's first year.

The war has, in recent months, also featured a smattering of new drone unveilings, including that of an aerial drone that can drop thermite on the battlefield and another equipped with an AK-74 rifle.

Meanwhile, Russian leader Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Moscow plans to bump drone production to 1.4 million in 2024, which would be about a 10-fold increase compared to previous years.