Ukraine contracts 'tens of thousands' interceptor drones

Ukraine has contracted "tens of thousands" of interceptor drones, director of the Defense Procurement Agency, Arsen Zhumadilov, said in an interview published on July 14.

Speaking with Ukrainian outlet Babel, Zhumadilov said that interceptor drones have now entered mass-production.

The technology is critical for Ukraine's air defense as Russia's aerial attacks have escalated significantly over the past few months. During just the last week, Russia launched over 1,800 drones against Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on July 13.

"Tens of thousands (drones). This is what we have already contracted and will continue to contract. Our contracting now, on the one hand, depends on the manufacturer's capacity, and on the other hand, on the state budget's capacity," Zhumadilov said.

"We will definitely contract everything that the state budget can afford," he added.

According to Zhumadilov, if a manufacturer can produce more drones than there is funding for, AOZ will sign contracts with partner countries to transfer drones as part of international military aid.

Alternatively, they will sign contracts under the "Danish model," meaning EU countries fund Ukrainian arms producers to supply weapons to Ukraine's military.

Ukraine’s new interceptor UAVs are starting to knock Russia’s long-range Shahed drones out of the sky

Russia’s Shahed drone swarms are pummeling Ukraine on a nightly basis, inflicting ever more death and destruction in cities that had managed to carve out some sense of normalcy amid wartime. Civilian alarm has grown. With traditional air defense stockpiles running low, the government is banking on newly created “interceptor-drones” to restore a baseline of public safety. “Ukraine is already using interceptors to shoot down Shaheds and is expanding their production,” President Volodymyr Zelensk

The Kyiv IndependentKollen Post

Ukraine has rapidly developed its drone capabilities since 2022, evolving from modifying commercial aircraft to producing military UAVs, attack drones, and reconnaissance systems at scale.

At the NATO summit in The Hague on June 24, Zelensky said Ukraine could potentially produce as many as eight million drones per year, but lacks the financial backing to achieve its full capacity. During the summit, Ukraine signed agreements on joint weapons production with the U.K. and Denmark in an effort to bridge the gap between Kyiv's capacity and current funds.

The Strategic Industries Ministry reported in April that Ukraine more than doubled its long-range drone output in 2024 compared to 2023 — a 22-fold increase over 2022.

Operation Spiderweb, a mass attack on four key military airfields in Russia, was carried out entirely with Ukrainian drones.

Meanwhile, Russia planned to produce 2 million first-person-view (FPV) drones and 30,000 long-range and decoy drones in 2025 for its war against Ukraine, Ukrainian Foreign Intelligence Service (SZRU) spokesperson Oleh Aleksandrov said on June 5.

Thanks for reading this article and staying informed. The Kyiv Independent operates without a wealthy owner or a paywall, relying solely on readers like you to fund our journalism. Consider joining our community today.

BREAKING: US to hit Russia with tariffs if no Ukraine deal reached in 50 days, Trump says

“We’re gonna be doing very severe tariffs if we don’t have a deal in 50 days. Tariffs that are about 100%, we call them secondary tariffs,” Donald Trump said in a joint press conference in the White House alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte.

The Kyiv IndependentMartin Fornusek