Sci-fi at war in Ukraine: robot soldiers and Russian-American negotiations

If you have read Polish author Stanisław Lem's 1964 novel The Invincible, the ongoing robotisation of warfare that we see on the Russian-Ukrainian front may feel like the celebrated sci-fi writer's ideas coming to life. 

The Ukrainian authorities have announced that 15,000 ground-based drones will be sent to the front in 2025. Robotisation is a major priority of Ukraine's army and arms industry. A feature article in Ekonomiczna Prawda describes soldiers' experiences with ground robots on the battlefield so far, their potential and unanticipated drawbacks.

Quoted by Ekonomiczna Prawda, Ukrainian officer Oleksandr Yabchanka says that the ideal situation is for all dangerous battlefield tasks to be performed by robots, while soldiers are withdrawn to safe positions. Yabchanka concedes that the Ukrainian army is very far from achieving this goal. Despite some successes in battlefield robotics, a major stumbling block remains the sheer number of trained operators needed for a single setup. 

To coordinate a mission, at least four soldiers are required to control the main robot's various functions and its accompanying first-person-view drone, which is used for communication.

Fifty terrestrial drones have been approved for use in the Ukrainian army, but according to an official from the state’s Brave1 technology platform, soldiers use only 20-30% of the drones because “most of them are not technically ready for real combat conditions, or have a narrow specialization.”

The official notes how the prototypes received by the army are constantly being improved during operations: “The army solves problems on its own thanks to frontline workshops. This is a large decentralized network of facilities where mechanics, engineers and operators bring the equipment up to combat readiness. They experiment with their designs and generate ideas for the manufacturers.” 

In war, there is no time for licenses, for authorized service centers, or for protection of intellectual property rights.

Who is Kirill Dmitriev? 

A Kremlin official and head of the state-run Russian Direct Investment Fund, Kirill Dmitriev, has emerged as a key figure in the Russian-American negotiations that have been ongoing since February. At the beginning of April, the Americans even lifted their sanctions against him to enable him to travel alone to Washington.

There, Dmitriev met with US envoy for the Middle East Steve Witkoff, other figures from Donald Trump's entourage, and representatives of the Republican Party. It therefore seems worthwhile to take a closer look at this character and his background, all of which has been detailed in a profile published by the independent Russian magazine Vazhnyye Istorii.

Kirill Dmitriev grew up in Kyiv, but he studied in California and worked at major American financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs. After returning to Ukraine, he worked for the influential oligarch Viktor Pinchuk. But he became disillusioned with the democratization that followed the 2004-2005 Orange Revolution and moved to Moscow, where he met his wife, who happened to be the closest friend of Vladimir Putin's daughter. Through his new family, he worked his way into the most important Kremlin offices, where he was appreciated as an excellent fixer and negotiator.

Putin sent Dmitriev to negotiate with the Americans because he wanted someone to talk to Trump who not only spoke English fluently but, above all, could speak the US president's language of business and profit. Nor are Dmitriev and Trump complete strangers: Dmitriev had contacts with the Trump campaign during the 2016 election.