Experimental drones being tested by Ukrainian forces, seen in a photo shared on August 28, 2023 by state-affiliated media. The drone on the left is mounted by what what seems to be a turret.Facebook/@Михайло ФедоровUkraine's intelligence chief predicted that ground drones in battle will increase "in the order of tens" this year.Kyrylo Budanov said much of Ukraine's impetus for these drones is to avoid sending troops to die.Some of Ukraine's experimental ground drones, which it calls "iron soldiers," can be fit with guns or explosives.Ukrainian intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov expects the war to enter a new phase — one that will see far more land-based drones replacing soldiers on the front lines.In an interview last weekend at the Yalta European Strategy conference in Kyiv, Budanov said the unmanned tech is new but progressing."These are just emerging things," he said, per a translation provided by the conference.