Russian Tanks Attacked Through Drone-Blinding Fog. The Russians Didn't Realize Ukrainian Robots Were Waiting ... On The Ground.

Ground surveillance robots can see through bad weather. But only with redundant comms.

Ukrainian ground robots. Brave1 photo

Taking advantage of a thick winter fog on or just before Saturday, a Russian mechanized column rolled toward Kostyantynivka, a fortress town just 30 miles northeast of the main locus of the fighting in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast: the ruins of Pokrovsk.

Fog is, for now, the Russians’ best friend. It can ground or blind the surveillance drones that infantry-starved Ukrainian brigades count on to spot approaching Russian assault groups—and ground or blind the first-person-view attack drones the same brigades count on to stop the assault groups.

The worsening winter weather all along the 700-mile front line of Russia’s 45-month wider war on Ukraine can, according to Carnegie Endowment analyst Michael Kofman, “significantly degrade” drones on both sides. But that’s a bigger problem for the Ukrainians, who are struggling to recruit enough infantry and depend on drones to plug gaps in their defenses.

But if the Saturday skirmish near the village of Rusyn Yar was any indication, at least one Ukrainian brigade has found a way to sustain front-line surveillance even in the worst weather. Instead of deploying aerial surveillance drones, the 93rd Mechanized Brigade “Kholodnyi Yar” deployed ground surveillance drones that are largely unbothered by foggy skies.