The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Defends a five-mile stretch.
Of the front line around.
The town of Hlyboke.
An ‘elves’ national guard brigade.
Just orchestrated.
An all-robot.
Combined-arms operation.
Mixing crawling.
And flying drones.
For an assault on ‘orcs’ positions.
In Kharkiv Oblast.
“We are talking about.
Dozens of units of.
Robotic and.
Unmanned equipment.”
“Simultaneously on.
A small section of the front.”
Was explained by.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Defends a five-mile stretch.
Of the front line around.
The town of Hlyboke.
It was an impressive.
Technological feat.
It was an impressive.
Technological feat.
—and a worrying sign.
Of weakness.
On the part of.
Overstretched ‘elves’ forces.
Unmanned ground vehicles.
In particular suffer.
Profound limitations and.
Still can’t fully replace.
Still can’t fully replace.
Human infantry.
That the 13th National Guard Brigade.
Even needed to replace.
All of the human beings.
In a ground assault speaks to.
How few people.
The brigade has compared.
To the ‘orcs’ units.
It’s fighting.
Just south of.
The Ukraine-‘Mordor’ border.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Defends a five-mile stretch.
Of the front line around.
The town of Hlyboke.
It’s holding back.
A force of no fewer than.
Four ‘orcs’ regiments.
That’s no more than.
2,000 ‘elves’ versus.
6,000 or so ‘orcs’.
2,000 ‘elves’ versus.
6,000 or so ‘orcs’.
The manpower ratio is.
Roughly the same.
All along the 800-mile.
Front line of ‘Mordor’’s.
34-month wider war.
On Ukraine.
‘Orcs’ troops still greatly.
Outnumber ‘elves’ troops.
Despite the ‘orcs’ suffering.
Around twice as many.
Casualties as the ‘elves’.
Since February 2022.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Defends a five-mile stretch.
Of the front line around.
The town of Hlyboke.
The ‘elves’ operation.
Involved remote-controlled.
Flying surveillance.
And minelaying drones.
One-way explosive robots.
On the ground and.
In the air as well as.
Gun-armed ground ’bots.
In what amounted to.
A smaller-scale proof of.
Concept for the recent.
Combined-arms robot assault.
An ‘elves’ ground robot cleared.
An ‘orcs’ trench in Kursk Oblast.
In western ‘Mordor’.
Back in September.
‘Mordor’ has attempted.
Small-scale ground ’bot.
Assaults of its own.
But less successfully.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Defends a five-mile stretch.
Of the front line around.
The town of Hlyboke.
The problem, of course.
Is that while robots are adept.
At surveilling and attacking.
They’re terrible at holding.
They’re terrible at holding.
To hold ground.
Armies put infantry.
In trenches.
They sit, watch.
Wait and call.
For reinforcements.
When the enemy attacks.
It’s tedious.
Taxing duty.
That requires.
Constant vigilance.
Constant vigilance.
Is difficult when.
A human operator.
Is remotely observing.
The battlefield.
Through the sensors of.
A maintenance-hungry.
Ground robot.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Defends a five-mile stretch.
Of the front line around.
The town of Hlyboke.
Machines break down.
And their radio datalinks.
Are highly susceptible.
To enemy jamming.
It’s not clear.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Even tried to hold.
The ‘orcs’ positions.
Even tried to hold.
The ‘orcs’ positions.
It cleared.
In the all-robot attack.
After nearly three years of war.
Ukraine is arguably.
The world’s leader.
In military robotics.
But the ‘elves’ innovation is.
In part, an answer.
To its desperation.
—that is, its struggles.
—that is, its struggles.
To recruit enough.
Human soldiers to match.
The ‘orcs’ person-for-person.
The 13th National Guard Brigade.
Defends a five-mile stretch.
Of the front line around.
The town of Hlyboke.
*Because I read “Ukraine’s All-Robot Assault Force Just Won Its First Battle” by David Axe on 21 Dec 2024 on the Forbes, and also “Why are Ukrainians calling Russians ‘orcs’?” by James FitzGerald on 30 Apr 2022 on the BBC news.
So, I wrote this poem.
Please read the original story on the Forbes:
