Oleg Davygora10:40 PM, June 12, 2026

Alexander Kokhanovsky, CEO of Ukrainian drone manufacturer Aero Center, spoke about this one-time test.

During field tests, fully autonomous Ukrainian drones killed Russian soldiers,  according to a Ukrainian drone manufacturer, according to Ars Technica .

If true, the incident would be another milestone in a war that has spurred unprecedented development of military drones, robots, and artificial intelligence-powered weapons.

Alexander Kokhanovsky, CEO of Ukrainian drone manufacturer Aero Center, described this one-off test. He described a trial using quadcopters programmed to fly to the front lines, after which they activated “Terminator” mode with artificial intelligence, which was designed to detect and attack any target in a designated area.

Kokhanovsky told New Scientist that human-piloted drones sent to survey the aftermath spotted “a couple” of dead Russian soldiers, leading to the conclusion that they were killed by fully autonomous drones.

A Ukrainian military commander explained that his drone pilots use only semi-autonomous systems, in which key control decisions are always made by humans. He also described Ukraine’s commitment to “international humanitarian law,” emphasizing that the military always exercises “great caution when making decisions to prevent civilian casualties.”

Interestingly, the one-off nature of this experiment makes sense given the practical limitations of such an approach, as well as considerations related to international humanitarian law. Sending fully autonomous drones to attack anything in a given area without any human operator intervention requires careful pre-planning and carries the risk of so-called “friendly fire” incidents or attacks on civilians.

It is also unclear how effective these fully autonomous quadcopters were at selecting and attacking targets compared to drone pilots.

Importantly, according to the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs, there is currently no universally accepted definition of what constitutes a lethal autonomous weapon system. However, generally accepted characteristics describe weapon systems that possess autonomy capable of “performing their functions without human direction or intervention.” 

The war in Ukraine – the use of drones

Ukraine is changing its approach to frontline logistics, increasingly relying on heavy drones . Drone bombers, capable of carrying significant cargo, are already being used to deliver supplies to areas where human movement is too dangerous.

The Max drone was originally designed as a heavy strike platform for striking Russian positions and dropping explosives. It can carry approximately 40 kg of payload. However, its role is gradually evolving.

(C)UNIAN 2026