Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Tuesday that his country is making progress in building its own “drone army” and has recently stepped up drone attacks in Crimea and on Russian territory.
In a video address on Tuesday evening, President Zelensky told his compatriots that he had attended a private event on Tuesday where government officials presented the results of the first year of the drone army. “It is not a project, but a real Ukrainian drone army,” Zelensky stressed.
“There was a presentation of different types of Ukrainian drones used for defense, as well as a meeting with manufacturers, designers, and donors. Journalists and civil representatives could see what potential the drone army has reached in the first year and how the army will grow,” the Ukrainian president said.
“Defense absolutely needs all drones — from fairly simple Mavic drones to maritime drones and attack drones that can operate long-range. By the way, we often discuss this topic and often in a raised tone. But there are results, and this can be seen in the news,” Zelensky pointed out, referring to drone attacks on Russian targets attributed to but not always claimed by Ukraine.
The most high-profile example of such an attack is the July 17 strike for the second time of a kamikaze drone on the Kerch bridge, which killed two people and disrupted road traffic on the only bridge linking Crimea, which Moscow illegally annexed in 2014, to mainland Russia. It is a key piece of infrastructure for transporting military equipment from Russia to the Ukrainian front.
Several military depots have also been hit in Crimea lately, and recently Russian authorities said they had destroyed two Ukrainian drones in Moscow, one crashing near the Russian Defense Ministry and the other on a shopping center in the south of the capital. “There will be more good news with Ukrainian drones. And this is fundamental,” Zelensky promised Tuesday night, suggesting that Ukrainian-made drone strikes will continue.
