Home › Security › Zapad drills showed robot vehicles, as Donbas fighting continued
Zapad drills showed robot vehicles, as Donbas fighting continued
Summary
A look back at 15 September 2021, when Russia displayed unmanned ground vehicles in joint exercises with Belarus, days after fatal shelling in Donetsk region.
What did Russia show during its Zapad exercises with Belarus on 15 September 2021? The answer was unmanned ground vehicles used within combat formations, during the weeklong joint manoeuvres.
Two machines were demonstrated. The Uran-9 is a tracked vehicle armed with a 30 mm autocannon, a machine gun, anti-tank missiles and a flamethrower. The Nerekhta carries a mounted machine gun and a grenade launcher, and also has cargo capacity.
The backdrop in Donbas
Three days earlier, on 12 September 2021, two Ukrainian soldiers were killed by separatists in the Donetsk region. The deaths followed intense artillery shelling by pro-Russian militants that began overnight.
The two developments were separate events. Together they marked a week in which fighting in eastern Ukraine continued while Russia displayed new armed robotic systems alongside Belarusian forces. Neither report linked the exercise to the situation in Donbas, and the reports establish no such connection.
