Budanov: allies will be able to access new developments against jet-powered UAVs

Countries that have concluded cooperation agreements with Ukraine in the drone sector will be able to begin negotiations on obtaining access to new Ukrainian technologies for countering Russian jet-powered drones.

Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Kyrylo Budanov said this in an interview with Euronews.

According to Budanov, Ukraine is already using new technology to intercept jet-powered drones in combat conditions. The main task now remains scaling up production to the volumes needed to protect the country during the winter period.

At the same time, there is no talk of automatic transfer of a specific Ukrainian product to all partners.

“Any state that has concluded such agreements with us has, so to speak, the right to continue negotiations on specific products,” Budanov explained.

He clarified that cooperation may include not just one particular type of weapon, but the creation by countries of similar systems and joint work on relevant technologies.

Ukraine has already concluded so-called Drone Deals with a number of European states. Among them are Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands and Denmark. Such agreements provide for various formats of cooperation, from joint production to exchange of technologies and combat experience.

The need for new interception systems arose after Russia began to more actively use jet-powered strike drones, which are significantly faster than ordinary drones such as Shahed. This complicates their interception with existing means and increases the load on Ukrainian air defense.

Ukraine in recent weeks has accelerated the development and testing of specialized means of countering such targets. On September 25, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, after a meeting of the Staff, reported on the results of tests of interceptors against jet-powered “Shaheds” and stated that production of the most effective solutions will be increased.

In addition, the authorities made decisions on deploying the production of various types of jet engines for such systems in Ukraine.

Budanov expressed confidence that the necessary production volumes of new interception means will be achieved before the most difficult winter months.

Based on materials: Euronews, Office of the President of Ukraine