State companies have delivered six times more drones to Ukrainian defenders in the past five months than in all of 2023.
This was stated by Vadym Sukharevsky, Commander of the UAV Systems Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in response to a question from an RBC-Ukraine correspondent.
"Over the period of this year so far, in these six months, the state has supplied the Armed Forces with six times more drones than during the entire last year. This trend is continuing to grow," Sukharevsky emphasized.
He also assured that President Volodymyr Zelensky's goal of providing Ukrainian defenders with 1 million FPV drones in 2024 will be exceeded.
According to Sukharevsky, Ukraine currently has many drone manufacturers, but not all are ready for large-scale production. Therefore, state programmes are being created to scale up production.
"This involves not only production within Ukraine but also abroad, to scale up the best models," the Commander of the UAV Systems Forces explained.
It is worth noting that Ukraine has significantly increased drone production following the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. The Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) use drones to defend the country from Russian forces.
Notably, when UAF soldiers faced a shortage of artillery shells, they effectively substituted them with FPV drones, which were actively used to destroy Russian infantry and equipment.