MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov said on Friday that AI-enabled drones were playing a key role on the battlefield in Ukraine and urged more training for troops on how to use them.

Belousov’s ministry published video of him touring a centre for next-generation drone technologies and speaking with drone operators.

One soldier showed Belousov a simulation of a drone equipped with AI-powered automatic image recognition attacking a small boat on a river.

“It locks onto the target and is already capturing it,” the serviceman told the minister. “Even if there is a loss of control, it will steer the drone towards it.”

Belousov said two detachments equipped with AI-powered drones are already deployed in eastern Ukraine as well as in Russia’s Belgorod and Kursk regions, where troops are fighting to eject Ukrainian troops who staged a surprise incursion over the border in August.

“The guys are fighting, and fighting very successfully,” Belousov said.

The ministry said it plans to form and staff five more units to carry out such drone missions “around the clock”. Belousov said soldiers needed to be trained accordingly.

President Vladimir Putin said last month that Russia was ramping up drone production by around 10 times to nearly 1.4 million units this year.

Ukraine has also made extensive use of drones during the war, including to attack military targets and energy installations on Russian territory. One such strike last month triggered an earthquake-sized blast at a major weapons arsenal in Russia’s Tver region, west of Moscow.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)