Sablynx

In late summer, the Russian army carried out an unexpected and rapid breakthrough on the Dobropillia axis in Donetsk Oblast. Within just a couple of days, Russian forces had pushed nearly 15–17 km into the rear of Ukrainian territory, threatening to collapse the entire front in the north of Donetsk Oblast.

The General Staff launched a counteroffensive operation, completing it only in late November and fully cutting off the entire Dobropillia salient held by the enemy. Ukrainian authorities have presented this as one of the greatest military successes of the year.

And this successful counterattack began with the deployment of a small ground drone armed with a machine gun.

"We rolled out and shot up every house where the enemy was. We cleared the area so thoroughly that when the recon group went in after us, it turned out we'd actually retaken two villages."

This refers to the villages of Hruzke and Vesele on the very edge of the Dobropillia salient, which were liberated in early September.

Ground robotic systems equipped with machine guns, known as Lynx, were used during the AFU counteroffensive near Dobropillia.