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Ukraine failing to procure enough drones to fight Russia, soldiers say [1]

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Date: 2023-11

Frontline soldiers have told openDemocracy that the Ukrainian government is failing to procure enough drones to fight the Russian invasion and is not evenly distributing them among units.

“The Ukrainian armed forces cannot provide the amount of drones that the army needs,” said Vasyl*, a Ukrainian special forces soldier who spoke on condition of anonymity. “All our needs are partially covered by volunteers, but even this is not enough.”

When Russia’s full-scale invasion began, volunteer groups were largely responsible for delivering drones to the Ukrainian frontlines, buying them in from abroad. Only a handful of domestic manufacturers existed in Ukraine and corruption and bureaucracy meant they could not sign contracts with the state.

Since then, the Ukrainian government has focused on strengthening domestic drone production. It simplified the process for procuring Ukrainian drones last year – including the procedure for certifying new weapons – and allocated significant funds to finance start-ups producing new unmanned aerial vehicles.

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This, along with the fact that the unmanned aerial vehicles are relatively straightforward to produce, has led to a ‘production race’ among Ukrainian private manufacturers. More than 100 companies now make drones in the country, producing tens of thousands each month, according to Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister of strategic industries of Ukraine.

But how much exactly is being spent on these drones is unknown. The Ukrainian government made defence purchases secret before Russia’s invasion, meaning the procurement processes and prices of drones are not transparent. According to public announcements by officials, the state has allocated 40 billion hryvnias (£900m) to purchasing drones this year.

The number of drones procured is determined by the Ukrainian Army’s General Staff, which studies requests made by troops. But this system is still not meeting frontline needs, Ukrainian soldiers say, adding that there are also disparities in where procured drones are going.

“There was a period when there were enough drones, even before the complications with their purchases, sometime last spring [2023]. Now there is a serious shortage,” Didko*, a drone operator, told openDemocracy.

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[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/odr/ukraine-failing-to-procure-enough-drones-russia-war-soldiers/

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