KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine will produce one million drones next year, boosting current production levels, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Tuesday.
Ukraine has been working to increase its domestic weapons production since the start of Russia’s invasion in February 2022. Drones increasingly play a central role on the battlefield and are used in large numbers by both Kyiv and Moscow.
“Regarding production, we will produce a million drones next year,” Zelenskiy told a televised news conference. “We will make a million. We will do everything to make it so. I know that’s how it will be.”
Government officials have previously said that Ukraine aims to produce tens of thousands of drones every month by the end of this year. No figures on current drone production are available.
Since the start of the war, drone production in Ukraine has shot up, with dozens of companies developing and producing different models. Ukrainian military commanders have said more was needed.
Zelenskiy acknowledged challenges and said that his government team and the military worked on how to upgrade and modernize Soviet-era logistics and other procedures to ensure swift and easy drone supplies to combat units on the battlefield.
Zelenskiy also said Ukraine was looking for ways to increase domestic production of artillery ammunition, especially 155 mm shells. A senior army general told Reuters this week that frontline Ukrainian troops face shortages of artillery shells.
(Reporting by Pavel Polityuk and Olena Harmash; editing by Bill Berkrot)
