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Japan breaks into Ukraine’s drone market for first time as Tokyo confronts regional threats
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Japan breaks into Ukraine’s drone market for first time as Tokyo confronts regional threats

by Dominic Culverwell

A Tokyo-listed drone firm is breaking with the trend of Japanese companies avoiding Ukraine's defense industry by partnering with interceptor drone producer Amazing Drones, the first Japanese company to invest in the sector. The investment — undisclosed in size — will fuel a major production scale-up at Kharkiv-based Amazing Drones, with Terra Drone using its decade-long experience to handle supply chains, marketing, and global expansion, the company said at a launch event in Kyiv on March 31.

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Exclusive: Inside Russia's shadow fleet

The vessels are old, their hulls streaked with rust, and their ownership obscured behind layers of shell companies. Yet the tankers that make up Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, the armada used to move sanctioned oil across the globe, are kept running with modern Western technology including Starlink, an investigation by the Kyiv Independent can reveal. To gain an insight into how the shadow fleet operates, the Kyiv Independent spoke to two Ukrainian sailors who claim they unwittingly became p

part of Russia's "shadow fleet," anchored off the coast of Ahtopol, Bulgaria, on Dec. 8, 2025.

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The Kyiv Independent’s Business Desk covers the biggest news in business, economics, and tech from Ukraine, as well as global developments that shape the economy of the region.

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