THIS is the jaw-dropping moment a machine gun robot takes on a Russian soldier in a deserted town – as Ukraine grabs the most land it has taken back from Mad Vlad in three years.
Dramatic video shows the unmanned vehicle trundling into battle, armed with a Browning M2 machine gun.
A Russian solider can be seen in drone footage dodging around ruined farmhouses, frantically searching for cover.
But the Ukrainian robot stops with a clear line of fire to the enemy soldier.
Bright machine gun flashes pierce the darkness, and the robot appears to have hit its target.
The soldier seems to have been hit twice by the unmanned attacker.
CALL THIS PEACE?
Nato scrambles jets over Russian blitz launched hours before peace talks
DARING STRIKE
Ukraine blitzes Putin’s top secret super-weapons testing hub in drone attack
It comes as Ukraine has re-captured land from Mad Vlad at the fastest pace in three years, new analysis reveals.
Volodymyr Zelensky’s forces gained 78 sq miles in just five days between Wednesday and Sunday, according to AFP analysis of Institute for the Study of War data.
That’s equal to Russia’s progress for the whole of December.
And it’s thought to be the most land captured in such a short period since June 2023.
The recaptured land is mainly to the east of the Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia.
These dramatic gains came after Russian forces were left scrambling when battlefield communications collapsed.
Elon Musk made a deal with Ukraine’s defence ministry to block Russian access to Starlink terminals sending Russian soldiers into disarray.
A spokesperson for the Institute for the Study of War said: “These Ukrainian counterattacks are likely leveraging the recent block on Russian forces’ access to Starlink, which Russian milbloggers (military bloggers) have claimed are causing communications and command and control issues on the battlefield.”
While up to 90 per cent of Russian units had their communications cut by the Starlink deal, Ukrainian soldiers beefed up the use of ground robots.
More than 7,000 missions involved ground drones last month alone.
It comes as a woman has been killed and six people have been injured in Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy.
Russians attacked residential buildings in the city overnight – two children are among the injured.
Previous analysis showed that Putin’s pathetic army is moving at a snail’s pace on some fronts.
In January, data revealed that Russia is advancing in Ukraine slower than any army in more than 100 years – including allied efforts at the notoriously drudging Battle of The Somme.
Mad Vlad’s desperate lads have been taking between 15 and 70 metres of territory per day since early 2024, analysis showed.
These pitiful gains by the Russian army are slower than many drudging First World War campaigns, according to a report by the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.
The most pathetic progress is being made in Chasiv Yar, where invading forces are gaining ground at an average of 15 metres a day – slower than the average snail that covers around 25 metres in a 24-hour period.
Despite two years of bloody battles, Russian forces have moved just six miles and have still not managed to take the Donetsk city.