Flamethrower robots are now officially a part of Ukraine's war
Ukraine's defense ministry has officially approved what it described as a flamethrower robot for its military units.
The Krampus, a locally invented uncrewed ground vehicle, now joins more than 80 other supported ground drone designs that Kyiv's forces can use, the ministry said in a statement on Monday.
The ministry said the remotely piloted vehicle is equipped with RPV-16 rounds, which are rocket-propelled thermobaric rounds originally designed by Ukraine to be fired from a portable launcher by infantry.
Built to "perform assault and defensive missions" against infantry and light armor, the Krampus is a tracked UGV that runs on two silent motors and can fit in the back of a pickup truck, the ministry added.
According to the statement, its controls are jam-resistant and designed to withstand cold, heat, snow, and rain. It's also supposed to effectively cross off-road terrain such as thick forest, sand, swamps, and steep inclines.
"The platform's battery capacity allows for several hours of continuous movement. Thanks to this, it can remain in position for extended periods in standby mode," the statement said.
The ministry didn't specify the drone's operational range or ammo capacity. Photos of the Krampus appear to show a tracked platform with a video camera that can fit four RPV-16 launchers. These launchers are typically single-use, so it's likely the Krampus can fire four times before having to be resupplied.
Authorization by the defense ministry can be important for how widely a drone is used, since Ukrainian weapons manufacturing and innovation are dispersed across the country. As the war rages, various firms and military units work simultaneously on their own battlefield tech and often share them with each other.
Official approval means Ukrainian forces can use their budgets to purchase the Krampus UGV.
Their heavier frames offer more deployment options than a typical flying drone, such as carrying larger explosive payloads for attack missions, evacuating the wounded as a last resort, or clearing mines.
"These drones allow us to replace infantry soldiers on the battlefield," Oleksandr Chernyavskiy, an enlisted soldier who helps with fundraising in the 241st Territorial Defense Brigade's drone prototyping team, told Business Insider of UGVs like the Krampus.
His own brigade has created a similar tracked UGV with mounted belt-fed machine guns that he says runs on an operational range of 20 km. Typically, such assault UGVs fly in tandem with aerial drones that can help them scout for mines, traps, and targets, Chernayavskiy said.
"It appeared to be quite effective in some kind of operations, like against well-equipped positions and traps," Chernayavskiy said of his brigade's weapons-mounted UGVs. "Usually, it's been used remotely without our infantry nearby."
Ukraine has set a goal of fielding 15,000 UGVs on the battlefield by the end of the year.
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Politico
an hour ago
- Politico
How Germany Changed Its Mind About America, Thanks to Donald Trump
Five days after his election victory in February, Friedrich Merz's world collapses. That's how he will describe it later. That Friday evening, he steps off the stage at a large conference center in Hamburg's port, where cruise ships usually moor. He has just been hailed as 'the future federal chancellor,' and more than a thousand party supporters have cheered on their chairman at a rally of the local chapter of the Christian Democratic Union, Germany's main center-right party. At around 8:15 p.m., he shakes a few hands in farewell, then drops into the backseat of his official car for the three-hour drive home. It is February 28, 2025. Merz checks his phone and notices a message from his spokesperson. He should watch a video, preferably immediately. Merz pulls out his iPad, opens the link, and recognizes a room familiar to anyone who follows politics. Two armchairs upholstered in gold damask sit in front of a fireplace with no fire burning. In front of the fireplace is a table made of fine wood inlaid with an oversized seal. It's the Oval Office in the White House. To Donald Trump's right sits a small, bearded man in a black military sweater embroidered with a stylized trident, the national symbol of Ukraine. It is Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the president of Ukraine, a country invaded by Russia. Merz holds him in high esteem. Merz has visited Zelenskyy twice in Kyiv and, just a few days ago, accepted Zelenskyy's congratulations on his election victory. Ukraine has high hopes for Merz. The new chancellor is expected to finally provide the Taurus, a German cruise missile capable of penetrating bunkers, which Merz's more liberal predecessor as chancellor, Olaf Scholz, refused to provide throughout his time in office. In the video, Zelenskyy looks tired. Tired and helpless. Merz is dismayed as he watches the U.S. president humiliate his Ukrainian counterpart. Trump accuses him of endangering millions of lives and risking a third world war. When Zelenskyy retorts that it was Russian President Vladimir Putin who started the war, Trump interjects harshly. In front of the cameras, Zelenskyy is scolded like a naughty child for several minutes. 'Did you ever say thank you?' Vice President JD Vance asks Zelenskyy, hurling this question at him several times. 'That was good television,' Trump says at the end of the meeting. The subsequent talks, which were supposed to be about security guarantees after a ceasefire, are canceled. A fully negotiated raw materials agreement is not signed. The celebratory lunch is canceled. Zelenskyy waits another 20 minutes in an adjoining room. Then, an official appears and simply sends him away. Merz has just finished watching the nearly 40-minute scene when he posts a solidarity message to Zelenskyy in English on X: 'We must never confuse the aggressor with the victim in this war!' He is on the phone nonstop in the car until he arrives in Sauerland and then for half the night. He also speaks with Scholz, who would still be chancellor for another two months. Scholz and his designated successor agree that something historic happened that day in Washington. The Americans are threatening not only to abandon Ukraine but also all their allies. Is Article 5 of the NATO Treaty, which requires every member to come to the defense of every other member, still to be taken seriously? Would U.S. soldiers defend Germany against a Russian attack? Are American nuclear missiles still a credible deterrent? The two men agree that given these circumstances, Germany must rebuild its national defenses. As quickly as possible and at whatever cost. And it will cost a lot, between 1 and 1.5 trillion euros over the next 12 years — double the previous amount. Spending that much money on defense isn't easy. In Germany, the 'Schuldenbremse' or 'debt brake' is a fiscal rule enshrined in the Constitution. It is designed to limit the amount of new government debt to a maximum of 0.35 percent of gross domestic product. Before the elections, Merz campaigned on keeping the debt brake and insisted as chancellor he could do without extra debt. But in the coming days, Merz will flip his position and agree to this new borrowing. The humiliation of Zelenskyy has changed everything. This account of the election of Merz and his first days as Germany's incoming chancellor is based on more than 50 conversations with sources, some close to Merz, who were granted anonymity to speak freely. Merz's doubts about his prior convictions had been building for weeks. A few days before the general election, Merz met with Vance in Munich. Merz wanted to dissuade the American vice president from publicly urging Germans to vote for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. 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'What the new American president, Donald Trump, has said in Washington these last few days…' he told the audience from the campaign stage in Hamburg, 'Ladies and gentlemen, we are witnessing a fundamental shift in the global political landscape.' Following the Munich Security Conference, Merz discreetly asked former Constitutional Court judge Udo Di Fabio to explore whether it would be possible to amend Germany's Basic Law with the votes of the outgoing Bundestag. The 'Basic Law' is Germany's equivalent of a constitution. It can only be changed by a two-thirds majority in parliament. That also applies to the debt brake. Getting a two-thirds vote would be possible with the old Bundestag, but not the new Bundestag that was expected to have a higher representation of AfD and other fringe parties. Shortly afterwards, Di Fabio sent him his expert opinion. 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Germany, which has neither its own nuclear weapons nor a robust army, needs American troops and their nuclear umbrella more than anyone. Merz, considered a staunch transatlanticist, was giving up on the USA? 'Since U.S. President Donald Trump's statements last week, it has been clear to me that this administration is largely indifferent to the fate of Europe,' Merz continued. A summit of the transatlantic military alliance is scheduled for the end of June. 'Will we even be talking about NATO in its current form then?' he asked. 'Or will we then have to establish an independent European defense capability much more quickly?' The next day, when the election results had been tallied, Merz praised the outcome in a press conference: 29 percent was much less than the Christian Democrats had hoped for, but Merz argued it was a success if you look at the number of votes rather than percentage points. 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Merz secured special funds for a defense build-up over the next 10 years that were five times larger than an increase Scholz negotiated just three years ago. An additional special fund of 500 billion euros had been agreed upon for rebuilding the country's infrastructure. Why was Merz, the avowed debt hawk, now so willing to push Germany so deep into debt? 'In view of the threats to our freedom and peace on our continent, the same must now apply to our defense: Whatever it takes!' Merz said at a press conference. The saying was a quote from Mario Draghi, the former head of the European Central Bank, who used this slogan in 2012 to scare off speculators who wanted to bet on a breakup of the eurozone. Now Merz used the same quote to explain his rearmament plan. At a parliamentary group meeting later that day, Merz reported that he would be traveling to Brussels to take part in the meeting of the heads of state and government of the EU Council. 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Merz held a conference call the night before the speech and warned Christian Democratic leaders that Vance would shake the transatlantic friendship and launch a rhetorical attack on Europe. That is exactly what happened. Merz and his allies were prepared. Warned once again, Merz expected the worst from Trump's speech to Congress. During conversations and phone calls with confidants, he made it even clearer than he had in the parliamentary group meeting that if Trump announced a NATO withdrawal that night, Putin might react immediately with an attack on the Baltic states. During those hours when he agreed Germany should take on a trillion-euro debt, Merz was acting on the belief that a new war in Europe was possible and NATO was on the brink of collapse. His vote in favor of the record debt came against this dramatic backdrop. As we know, things turned out differently. Trump delivered his congressional speech but did not mention a withdrawal from NATO. To this day, Merz does not believe that his Washington source misinformed him. The NATO withdrawal announcement had been prepared, he believes. Trump changed his mind at the last minute. (POLITICO Magazine asked the White House to respond to the assertion that Trump had considered using his March 4 speech to a joint session of Congress to announce a U.S. withdrawal from NATO. In an emailed statement, White House spokeswoman Anna Kelly said, 'Such an announcement was never included in any draft of any speech.')
Business Insider
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American Military News
2 hours ago
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Zelenskyy says Russia 'chooses to kill' as Putin repeats hard-line demands
This article was originally published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and is reprinted with permission. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a massive Russian drone and missile attack on Kyiv, which claimed dozens of civilian lives, is a reminder that Russia is disregarding cease-fire efforts and 'chooses to kill.' 'This strike is a reminder to the world that Russia spurns a cease-fire and chooses to kill,' Zelenskyy said on June 19 while visiting the site of a nine-story building that collapsed as a result of what Ukraine said was a direct missile hit during the intense aerial assault two nights earlier. 'This vile attack, carried out in the middle of the night, claimed the lives of 23 civilians,' he said on X. Five people were killed in other parts of the capital and more than 150 people in Kyiv and elsewhere were wounded in the massive attack early on June 17, emergency services said. At least two people were killed in the Black Sea port city of Odesa. 'I am grateful to all our partners who understand that Ukraine must grow stronger every single day. I thank everyone who is ready to exert pressure on Moscow in a way that makes them feel the true cost of this war,' Zelenskyy added. Zelenskyy's statement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed he is ready 'to find a solution' to his war on Ukraine and to potentially meet with the Ukrainian president. However, in his remarks at a meeting with representatives of international news agencies on the sidelines of an economic forum in St. Petersburg on June 18, Putin again repeated some of his maximalist positions in comments to foreign media, giving no sign that he is prepared to make substantial concessions. 'We need to find a solution that would not only put an end to the current conflict but also create conditions that would prevent similar situations from recurring in the long term,' Putin said. The remark echoed his repeated statements that any peace deal must address what he calls the 'root causes' of the war — wording he uses to question Ukraine's right to exist, to choose its security partners, and to maintain a strong military. Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul on May 16 and June 2, the first direct peace talks since the initial weeks of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Putin launched on February 24, 2022. The negotiations yielded agreements on prisoner swaps and the exchange of bodies of soldiers killed in the war, but produced no progress toward a cease-fire, let alone a peace deal. Russia and Ukraine sent an unspecified number of sick or wounded prisoners home on June 19, the latest in a series of exchanges. Zelenskyy said the exchange brought back Ukrainian soldiers who had fought all along the front lines, including in the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions that were liberated by Ukrainian forces months into the Russian invasion in 2022. 'Most of them had been held captive since 2022… Our goal is to free every single one of them,' Zelenskyy added. Putin said talks could resume at some point after June 22, a date he has previously suggested for a major new swap of prisoners and the bodies of the dead. The Russian leader added, however, that he would only meet Zelenskyy in the 'final phase' of any peace negotiations. Zelenskyy has sought to meet with Putin amid the talks, but the Kremlin says an agreement on a deal must be reached first and Putin repeated his groundless claim that Zelenskyy is not a legitimate leader. 'I am ready to meet with everyone, including Zelenskyy. That is not the issue — if the Ukrainian state trusts someone in particular to conduct negotiations, for God's sake, it can be Zelenskyy,' Putin said. 'I am even ready to meet him — but only if it is some kind of final phase.' The West has slapped sanctions on Russia while NATO has beefed up its forces on its eastern flank since Putin launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Rights groups have alleged major rights violations and war crimes committed by Russian forces during their military operations. Western allies have also widely criticized Putin for his refusal to agree to cease-fire terms put forward by US President Donald Trump. On June 19, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha noted that 100 days have passed since Kyiv accepted Trump's proposal for an unconditional, extendable 30-day cease-fire. Russia has kept up and in some cases intensified its bombardments of Ukrainian cities in recent weeks and is pushing to make further gains at several parts of the long front line, which runs from northeastern Ukraine to the Black Sea shore in the south. Putin's wide-ranging briefing took place as Russian air attacks continued on June 19, with the Ukrainian Air Force saying it shot down or otherwise neutralized 88 of the 104 drones fired by Russia. One person was killed in an artillery barrage on Kostyantynivka, a Ukrainian-held city in the Donetsk region, the head of the city military administration, Serhiy Horbunov, said on Facebook. Five people were wounded in Russian artillery and drone strikes on the Dnipropetrovsk region, authorities said. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces downed 85 Ukrainian drones over 11 Russian regions and Russian-occupied Crimea. In another sign that he is not ready to make concessions, Putin vowed that Moscow will 'demilitarize' Ukraine through diplomacy or force. At the talks in 2022 and in the recent negotiations, Russia has pushed for radically reducing the size of Ukraine's military, which Kyiv and its backers say would leave it defenseless. 'We will not allow Ukraine to have armed forces that would threaten the Russian Federation and its people,' he said. 'And if we fail to reach a settlement, we will achieve our goals by military means.' Asked about civilian deaths in Russian attacks on Ukraine, Putin repeated Moscow's claim that it does not target civilians, despite ample evidence to the contrary. 'The strikes were carried out against military industries, not residential quarters,' Putin said. The confirmed civilian death toll in Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion is over 13,000, according to the UN, which says many of the growing number of civilian casualties have been caused by Russian long-range missile and drone attacks. Officials say the real civilian toll is like higher. Meanwhile, on June 19, Zelenskyy appointed Hennadiy Shapovalov as commander of Ukraine's land force, replacing Major General Mykhaylo Drapatiy, who resigned following a deadly Russian strike on a troop training area.
