Ukraine's Third Army Corps announced that, as part of operation Vivaldi, it had carried out the first airborne insertion of ground robots into the rear of Russian forces. "The Third Army Corps was the first in the world to execute a flanking manoeuvre, dropping ground robots behind enemy lines and 'blinding' Russian drones," says the statement published on Telegram and relayed by Ukrinform.

According to the corps, heavy bomber drones released robotic ground systems designed for attacks deep inside enemy territory, while Russian drones over the zone were suppressed by air defence and electronic warfare systems. The aim, they say, is to expose infantry to less risk. Translated: before a man enters a trench, a machine goes in first.

The corps commander, Brigadier General Andriy Biletsky, had earlier that day announced that Ukrainian forces in operation Vivaldi had taken the settlements of Shandryholove and Derylove and established full control over Drobysheve in the Donetsk region. Captured villages and a world first in the same statement - a good day for the corps press office. How much of the manoeuvre is military innovation and how much military rhetoric will be settled at the front, not on Telegram.

What is not rhetoric is the trend: robots on the ground, drones in the air, electronic warfare blinding both. The Balkans remember war as infantry, artillery and trenches. Is any army in the region even training for a war where the first thing across the line has no pulse?