A Ukrainian army corps said it used aerial and ground drones to lay a minefield roughly a quarter-mile deep, in one of the war’s first large-scale instances of remote mining with uncrewed systems.
The Third Army Corps said on Wednesday that its drones took two nights to deploy the mines, a task that “would take humans about two weeks.”
According to its statement on Telegram, the corps laid about 400 meters, or 1,312 feet, of minefields during that timeframe, as part of a recent offensive in Donetsk called Operation Vivaldi.
Few details are publicly known about the operation, though the Third Army Corps said last week that it seized roughly 50 square miles of territory around the city of Lyman.
The Third Army Corps has been one of Ukraine’s most prominent military formations to promote the use of uncrewed ground vehicles, posting regularly about their deployment in logistics and assault missions.
“During the offensive Operation Vivaldi, these technologies allowed for the rapid mining of enemy movement routes and disruption of their logistics,” the Third Army Corps said.
A map posted by the corps indicated that the mines were laid near Shandryholove, a contested village about six miles northwest of Lyman.
Several animated videos also showed a hexacopter heavy bomber drone carrying a mine, as well as a TerMIT tracked modular uncrewed ground vehicle. It’s unclear if these were the specific types of drones used in the minelaying operation.
The Third Army Corps did not immediately respond to a request for comment sent outside daylight hours in Ukraine by Business Insider.
Earlier this week, the corps also said it had used heavy bomber hexacopters — known colloquially as “vampire” or “baba yaga” drones — to drop exploding uncrewed ground vehicles behind Russian lines.
Brig. Gen. Andrii Biletskyi, commander of the Third Army Corps, said in a video shared by the formation that “our heavy bomber drones deliver suicide ground drones more than 10 kilometers into the enemy’s rear.”
The past year has seen Ukraine increasingly use ground drones to carry supplies, scout the front lines, and attack Russian positions in areas deemed dangerous for human troops.
As Business Insider’s Jake Epstein reported from Ukraine in the summer, Ukrainian troops have also been deploying heavy-bomber aerial drones for supply runs.
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