Fighting continues in the Lyman direction, and the Defense Forces are increasingly employing ground robotic systems. This was reported by the head of the communications section of the 3rd Separate Assault Brigade, call sign “Disney.”

According to him, kamikaze UGVs and combat modules equipped with machine guns and grenade launchers are being used against the enemy. The serviceman explained how the robots strike targets that are difficult to reach by other means.

“The enemy tries to use knocked-out armored vehicles as shelters, digging a burrow underneath them. The armor on top provides good protection for the entrance. It is quite difficult to hit with an FPV or a bomber drone,” Disney noted.

Kamikaze UGVs, by contrast, drive right up to the target and detonate.

“The blast follows the path of least resistance, so it goes perfectly under the armored vehicle and continues into the burrow,” the serviceman explained.

Disney also assessed the morale of the enemy’s ranks. According to him, following a recent retreat they are “not very eager,” and the occupiers are going through “not the best times of their lives.” He cited a lack of proper supplies and rampant lying within the command structure as among the occupiers’ problems.

“They constantly lie to one another. At every level. There is simply a layer of lies that keeps growing bigger, bigger, and bigger,” the serviceman stated.

He gave an example: a company commander tells a subordinate to go to a position where supposedly “everything will be fine” and there is ammunition and food. The soldier walks past a “mountain of corpses of his fellow countrymen,” only to find on arrival that the position already belongs to Ukrainian forces.

Previously, Disney recounted that as part of Operation Vivaldi, Ukrainian units rapidly advanced into the enemy’s rear areas and disoriented the Russian command. According to ISW estimates, from March to September 2026 the Russians lost control of nearly 300 sq km, with at least 147 sq km liberated in the Lyman direction alone.

The occupiers have not abandoned their attempts: on October 21 alone they attacked twelve times in the Lyman area and neighboring villages.

Robotization has become a defining feature of defense in this direction. In the Third Army Corps, which includes the brigade, UGVs are also used for other tasks: over two nights they demined 30 km of routes in the Shandryholove direction and are responsible for clearing approximately 60% of anti-personnel mines within the corps’ area of responsibility.