Top of his ideas list are "mechanical birds" that can land on high-voltage power lines and recharge themselves, and "robot dogs" that can be sent into battle."In order to save human lives, to save soldiers, there must be robots," Trotsenko told AFP.Autonomous weapons have come to dominate the war with Russia.Aerial drones are used on the front lines for reconnaissance and to drop explosives, while down below ground robots support logistics operations.Ukraine has built a sprawling drone industry from scratch, hailed by President Volodymyr Zelensky as the best in the world.But the dismissal last month of popular defence minister Mykhailo Fedorov -- one of the most ardent backers of drones -- raised some concerns over the future of the sector."I don't understand why they sacked Fedorov," Trotsenko, the founder and CEO of robot manufacturer Temerland, said.Despite his removal, industry players and military personnel AFP spoke to said there was no going back now."The young people there won't let it go. There'll definitely be drones," Trotsenko said.Into the kill zoneWhen Russia invaded, 55-year-old Trotsenko -- who was born in Soviet Kazakhstan -- switched from making car charging stations to military robots.His speciality is ground drones: autonomous vehicles that crawl the "kill zone" -- the kilometres-deep stretch of territory where Russian and Ukrainian drones lurk in the skies, posing a constant danger to anybody below.