3 minutes of readingUpdated: Mar 13, 2026 07:31 pm IST
Written by Andrew E. Kramer
The Ukrainian military will make millions of drone videos and other battlefield data available to Ukrainian companies and their allies to help train artificial intelligence models, Ukrainian Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov said in a statement on Thursday.
Ukrainian drone videos have recorded attacks on soldiers, equipment such as vehicles and tanks, and surveillance footage. These videos can be used to train AI models for automated targeting, according to AI and warfare experts.
Allowing the use of authentic battlefield videos showing drones targeting people has raised ethical concerns. The International Committee of the Red Cross, which oversees the rules of war, has opposed automated targeting systems without human oversight.
Fedorov said the data would be available because “we must surpass Russia in every technological cycle” and “artificial intelligence is one of the key fields of this competition.”
Ukraine has already used the data internally to train AI functions within its main battlefield computer system, called Delta, according to the statement.
Under the new policy, companies can train AI models with the data, but will not be allowed to take ownership of the videos. The data sets will be managed by an innovation center within the Ministry of Defence.
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Ukrainian officials have said that humans will decide on the use of lethal force in the Ukrainian military. Supporters of AI targeting systems say their precision guidance can reduce civilian deaths in war. Launching an autonomous drone to attack soldiers miles away, they add, is no different from firing artillery at a distant target.
The AI could also process information unrelated to lethal attacks. It could help surveillance drone video processing by identifying objects based on patterns obtained from thousands or millions of hours of video.
Drones have surpassed all other weapons, such as rifles, machine guns, tanks, artillery and aerial bombs, in causing casualties to Ukrainian and Russian forces. The drones transmit video to a human pilot, who controls the drone remotely.
But about 9 in 10 explosive drone attacks fail because the radio signals are blocked by jamming equipment mounted on cars or carried by soldiers, or because the targets are out of range of the signals. Drones guided by fiber optic cables are a solution.
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But drone makers in both Russia and Ukraine have been experimenting with artificial intelligence systems that can autonomously recognize targets such as cars, tanks or humans and eliminate the need for a radio link with a pilot.
The videos show the evasive maneuvers that targets make at the last moment when the drones explode, such as car drivers swerving or soldiers jumping out of the way, firing weapons or throwing objects at the drones. To work effectively, AI targeting systems need to maneuver drones to react to these types of defensive actions.
“The future of warfare belongs to autonomous systems,” according to Fedorov’s statement. “Our goal is to increase the level of autonomy of drones and other combat platforms so that they can detect targets faster, analyze battlefield conditions and support decision-making in real time.”
This article originally appeared in The New York Times.
