Struggling with manpower shortages, overwhelming odds and uneven international assistance, Ukraine hopes to find a strategic edge against Russia in an abandoned warehouse or a factory basement.

An ecosystem of laboratories in hundreds of secret workshops is leveraging innovation to create a robot army that Ukraine hopes will kill Russian troops and save its own wounded soldiers and civilians.

Defense startups across Ukraine — about 250 according to industry estimates — are creating the killing machines at secret locations that typically look like rural car repair shops.

Employees at a startup run by entrepreneur Andrii Denysenko can put together an unmanned ground vehicle called the Odyssey in four days at a shed used by the company. Its most important feature is the price tag: $35,000, or roughly 10% of the cost of an imported model.

  • Flying SquidM
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    11 month ago

    It was a lot less commercial back in the 90s. And you could do things like just walk up to a celebrity to shake their hand and say hi and not get charged any money for it.

    • Drusas
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      21 month ago

      Yeah, those days are gone. I haven’t been in years, but I’m sure they still have good panels and such. But nothing is free and everything has a line.

      • Flying SquidM
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        01 month ago

        I went to Indy ComiCon last year and that was bad enough. Never again.

        • Drusas
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          21 month ago

          Yeah, my last con was PAX West some…6(?) years ago. Don’t see myself attending another. I did get some really fantastic dice there, though. Jade. I love jade. And a nice art print. Still, I’ve just kind of had enough of them now that they’re all so crowded and expensive.