18 April 2026
In the first half of 2026, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine will procure 25,000 UGVs to meet increased demand—twice as many as in all of 2025.
This was announced by Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov.
As the minister emphasized, the robots perform important logistics and evacuation tasks on the front lines. In March alone, they carried out over 9,000 missions, and in total during the first three months of the year—about 21,500 missions as part of the TDF.
“Our goal is for 100% of frontline logistics to be handled by UGVs,” he stated.
Statistics on the use of UGVs in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Source: Ministry of Defense of Ukraine
To achieve this goal, the Defense Procurement Agency of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has already signed 19 contracts worth 11 billion hryvnias with manufacturers.
To speed up deliveries, the Ministry of Defense has adopted a series of decisions:
- unblocked contracting even in the event of price changes;
- synchronized funding and significantly increased the annual procurement volume;
- at the Ministry of Defense’s request, the Defense Procurement Agency has accelerated contract signing;
- to establish an UGV R&D center under the Ministry of Defense, which, together with the military and the General Staff, will accelerate the deployment of UGV systems on the front lines and serve as a single point of contact for manufacturers.
As Maksym Vasylchenko, CEO of Tencore—the manufacturer of the TerMIT UGV—told Militarnyi, during the transfer at the company’s own expense of 26 ground-based robotic systems to six units, the state is currently contracting UGVs slowly due to a series of regulatory issues.
“The first reason—and I believe it is the main one—is that today, in the fourth year of the war, there is still no single authority, department, or agency that is generally responsible for the UGV sector. Currently, UGVs are not covered by the law—only electric vehicles are, which require specific chassis numbers and so on. Tax breaks for electric vehicles expired on January 1, 2026, and now VAT is levied specifically on logistics UGVs. And this has disrupted the bigger picture, because there was one budget calculated for a certain amount, and now it’s 20% less. Although all other special vehicles are purchased without VAT. “Many people are helping us resolve this issue, but it all starts with the fact that there is no responsible party, and there is no such concept as an UGV in Ukrainian law. And all of this has led to the situation we have now,” noted Maksym Vasylchenko.
He also noted that currently, UGV purchases are possible through Brave1 Market, but these are not the volumes that the military can obtain under government contracts.
“Last year, the Defense Procurement Agency submitted a request for us to provide commercial proposals for a certain quantity of equipment; they wanted to make the purchase in advance, but the VAT issue derailed this plan,” he added.
Delivery of UGVs. Photo credits: Tencore
The Defense Minister identified issues arising from the cancellation of VAT exemptions, which, he said, required a price review and delayed contracting timelines.
“We are currently working on a comprehensive solution to this issue,” he stated.
In addition, according to the minister, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine will change its approach to long-term contracting. Thus, this year, manufacturers are to receive contracts for the following year. This will help businesses forecast production and deliver the necessary volumes of products on time.