Whereas humaniods encapsulated in Robocop type gear or even android humanoids will no doubt be all over the place in future conflicts
together with a vast array of drones.

A fragment of a missile allegedly found in Kramatorsk apparently had Russian writing that said “for the children”.

The meaning of the wording remains unclear, as does who is responsible for it. The missile appears to be used by both the Ukrainians and Russians.

Tracey German, a professor in conflict and security at King’s College London, said: “За Детей in Russian means ‘for children/for the children’ – exactly what is meant by this is unclear, but it does not mean ‘intended for the children’, rather ‘on behalf of/to avenge children’, I think.”

One theory behind the message is that the writing relates to a false flag operation.

Stephen Hutchings, a professor of Russian Studies at the University of Manchester said: “If it was fired by the Russians, it may be an attempt to blame the incident on the Ukrainians, by suggesting that it was intended as a revenge strike for the deaths of children in Mariupol and elsewhere; the fact that it hit a Ukrainian railway station in a Russian-speaking region would be a way of signalling that the Ukrainian ‘Nazis’ don’t care about the lives of Russian speakers.

“If it hit the railway station by mistake, the inscription could still be interpreted as incriminating the Ukrainian ‘Nazi’ forces.

“However, at this stage, it is also still possible that the rocket was fired by the Ukrainian forces and simply missed its target.”

Prof Hutchings said the “Latin letter ‘Z’ in the Cyrillic version of ‘za detei’ is, of course, used in Russian propaganda as part of its patriotic branding”.

“It usually occurs precisely as the first letter of the word ‘za’ which means ‘for’ in Russian, usually in the combination ‘za pravdu’ (for truth), but in other combinations, too, including, as here ‘za detei’ (for the children).”