Jakub Laichter

Ukraine and eight partner countries plan to sign an agreement establishing a new international defense bank on Nov. 30, potentially opening another source of long-term financing for weapons production, the governments said in a joint statement published Oct. 29.

In a cornfield north of Kyiv, pieces of blackened metal are scattered among rows of dried stalks. They are all that remains of a Russian Geran attack drone, shot down by Ukrainian fighter jets as it flew toward the capital during one of Russia's mass aerial assaults. "Last year we had so many of them," says Halyna Prykhodko, deputy director of the Branytsia division of the agricultural company Zemlya i Volya. "We found three, four, even five in the fields." Above Prykhodko's land is one of the

In a government office, researchers of drones and electronic warfare gather around a small metal device recovered from a Russian Geran drone. Its purpose —  to measure the Earth’s magnetic field for navigation. "This is the most recent component we found, about a week or two ago," said one of the researchers. Outside, a Russian drone’s jet engine roared — a sound that has become almost constant in Kyiv in recent months as advances in drone technology allow Russia to strike farther, more often

At a training with the Ukrainian National Guard’s Omega unit, engineers from the defense tech company BlueBird Tech describe how to use their net gun, named Chipa, to entangle an approaching drone’s propellers. The soldiers rehearse encounters with approaching first-person-view (FPV) drones, monitoring a handheld detector as they walk. Once they spot a drone, one soldier who goes by the callsign Poliak (Ukrainian for "Pole"), pulls the safety pin and takes aim with the net gun, while the others

Kyiv will provide Washington and Congress with details of companies and individuals supporting the Rassvet network, Ukraine’s acting ambassador to the U.S., Denys Sienik, said, Reuters reported on Sept. 30.

According to Vyriy, the new Slavic drone has a tactical operating range of up to 30 kilometers, approximately twice that of a Chinese-made Mavic.

Ukraine’s defense technology industry has moved fast to meet battlefield demands, but it rests on a fragile foundation as it depends on foreign suppliers for essential components. Natalia Denikeieva, a deputy minister of digital transformation, says producing more of those components at home is a question of survival. "We are not technological and innovative because one day we woke up and decided to be," she told the Kyiv Independent in an interview in central Kyiv. "For us, it’s a matter of s

At the start of July, Ukraine's government announced with much fanfare that it would ease restrictions on arms exports. Businesses across Ukraine’s defense sector had long argued the move was necessary to help them grow and bring the country’s battle-tested innovations to the world. But two and a half months later, not a single export permit has been issued. The issue, according to Ukraine's State Service for Export Control, is bureaucratic: "At present, there are no mechanisms or instruments

As Russia shifts its bombardment tactics to near-hourly drone attacks throughout the day, increasingly targeting civilian infrastructure, more businesses are joining the program.