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Russia has introduced a new battlefield robot equipped with a rapid-fire mortar system that can autonomously load and launch rounds without human intervention.
This innovative device, known as the Kurier ground robotic system, was recently captured on film for the first time as it participated in live-fire exercises featuring the newly revealed Bagulnik-82 mortar module.
In the footage, the compact, tracked robot is shown maneuvering its turret in a snowy landscape before firing a succession of 82mm mortar shells at a remote training target.
Following the barrage, an automated mechanical arm efficiently reloads the mortar tube with fresh rounds.
The reloading process takes approximately five seconds, eliminating the need for human soldiers to be in proximity to the weapon.
The system is designed to operate remotely on the battlefield, and could soon be deployed to Ukraine.
The Bagulnik-82 module itself had not been publicly disclosed before this footage emerged.
Military analysts believe it is likely based on Russia’s 2B24 82mm light mortar.
The experimental machine (pictured), named the Kurier ground robotic system, has been filmed for the first time undergoing live-fire trials
The robot may soon be sent to fight on the frontlines of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
But the scale of automation may indicate a new, purpose-built system, adapted specifically for robotic use, as war plays out between robots without humans in the firing line.
It comes after a Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa killed two women and a toddler, while Ukrainian long-range drones targeted Russia’s key Black Sea port for oil exports.
The nighttime attack on Odesa heavily damaged an apartment block, killing the women and a 2-year-old child, officials said. Rescuers working under floodlights pulled four people from the rubble.
Eleven people were hospitalised, including a pregnant woman and two children – the youngest less than a year old, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on X.
Russia has pounded civilian areas of Ukraine since it invaded its neighbour just over four years ago, killing more than 15,000 people, according to the United Nations.
Over the past week, Russia has launched at Ukraine more than 2,800 attack drones, nearly 1,350 powerful glide bombs and more than 40 missiles of various types, according to Zelensky.
In the southern city of Kherson, Russian shelling killed an elderly woman and three other women, 86, 79 and 44, were hospitalised, according to Oleksandr Prokudin, head of the regional military administration. The injured women sustained shrapnel wounds, concussion, blast injuries and head trauma, he said.
Russia has also taken aim at Ukraine’s power grid, and overnight barrages hit energy infrastructure in Chernihiv, Sumy, Kharkiv and Dnipro regions, Zelensky said.
The reload cycle takes around five seconds with no human soldiers required anywhere near the weapon
The Bagulnik-82 module itself had not been publicly disclosed before
More than 300,000 households were without electricity in northern Chernihiv after distribution facilities were damaged in the attacks, according to the regional power utility.
Zelensky expressed concern in a weekend interview that the war in the Middle East is draining stockpiles of weapons that Ukraine needs to defend itself, especially American-made Patriot air defence systems that can stop missiles.
Zelensky said Monday that the country’s partners ‘need to strengthen air defence together so that the interception rate of drones and missiles continues to increase.’
With US-led peace efforts stalled, Zelensky added: ‘Russia has no intention of stopping’ its invasion.
Ukraine has fought back by developing its own long-range drones, which now reach targets some 900 miles inside Russia.
Ukraine has used them recently to hammer Russian oil facilities as Moscow looks to boost its exports after the Trump administration gave it a temporary waiver from sanctions to ease supply constraints.Â
Kyiv officials complain that Russia will use the additional revenue on new weapons to hit Ukraine harder.
Russia’s Defence Ministry said that air defences downed 50 Ukrainian drones overnight.
Krasnodar Gov. Veniamin Kondratyev said that eight people, including two children, were injured in a series of Ukrainian drone attacks on Novorossiysk, one of Russia’s largest Black Sea ports. The attack damaged six apartment buildings and two private houses, he said.
Unconfirmed media reports said the drones targeted the Sheskharis oil terminal at the Black Sea port.
Last week, Ukraine’s drones struck oil facilities in the Gulf of Finland, in northwest Russia.