Kateryna Farbar
Exclusive: Drone operators also told openDemocracy that drones are not being evenly distributed between army units
Frontline soldiers have told openDemocracy that the Ukrainian government is failing to procure enough drones to fight the Russian invasion and is not evenly distributing them among units.
“The Ukrainian armed forces cannot provide the amount of drones that the army needs,” said Vasyl*, a Ukrainian special forces soldier who spoke on condition of anonymity. “All our needs are partially covered by volunteers, but even this is not enough.”
When Russia’s full-scale invasion began, volunteer groups were largely responsible for delivering drones to the Ukrainian frontlines, buying them in from abroad. Only a handful of domestic manufacturers existed in Ukraine and corruption and bureaucracy meant they could not sign contracts with the state.
Since then, the Ukrainian government has focused on strengthening domestic drone production. It simplified the process for procuring Ukrainian drones last year – including the procedure for certifying new weapons – and allocated significant funds to finance start-ups producing new unmanned aerial vehicles.
This, along with the fact that the unmanned aerial vehicles are relatively straightforward to produce, has led to a ‘production race’ among Ukrainian private manufacturers. More than 100 companies now make drones in the country, producing tens of thousands each month, according to Oleksandr Kamyshin, the minister of strategic industries of Ukraine.
But how much exactly is being spent on these drones is unknown. The Ukrainian government made defence purchases secret before Russia’s invasion, meaning the procurement processes and prices of drones are not transparent. According to public announcements by officials, the state has allocated 40 billion hryvnias (£900m) to purchasing drones this year.
The number of drones procured is determined by the Ukrainian Army’s General Staff, which studies requests made by troops. But this system is still not meeting frontline needs, Ukrainian soldiers say, adding that there are also disparities in where procured drones are going.
“There was a period when there were enough drones, even before the complications with their purchases, sometime last spring [2023]. Now there is a serious shortage,” Didko*, a drone operator, told openDemocracy.
Didko said the situation worsened after China introduced restrictions on the export of drones to protect “national security and interests” on 1 September. His unit mainly uses Chinese-made Mavic drones and the DJI Matrice 30/300, which are used for aerial reconnaissance and dropping small explosives.
“I would probably like to have three times as many [drones] as there are, plus a little more to spare,” Didko said.
Vasyl told openDemocracy that his unit tried to get state-procured drones, but after “going through almost the entire process, the drones were given to another unit [by the military] at the distribution stage”.
The reason for this, the special forces soldier said, is a hallmark of the Ukrainian military: drones are not given to the units that show the best efficiency in their work, but to those that have the most confirmed “hits”. Vasyl emphasised that hitting targets is important, but believes that the work of aerial reconnaissance unit should be evaluated holistically, also taking into account other factors such as aerial intelligence.
"Our Ukrainian drones are made of [cheap material], they constantly break. But this is the optimal solution for this war" — Vasyl, special forces soldier
To receive a drone from the state, Vasyl continued, a pilot needs good connections at every level, from with the manufacturer to the official in charge of distribution.
“Both the local [military] leadership and at the top, up to the level of brigadier commander [who must report to the General Staff] often give priority to demonstrably quick results rather than comprehensive work,” he said.
That forces Ukrainian soldiers to ask the public for financial support to buy the drones themselves, Vasyl said.
The special forces unit prefers to use Ukrainian-made drones, which, although often less technologically advanced, are easier to access than many foreign-made drones, meaning they are more easily replaced if destroyed by Russia.
“Our Ukrainian drones are made of [cheap material], they constantly break,” he said. “But this is the optimal solution for this war. The only thing that doesn't make them super optimal is the fact that the prices for these drones are extremely high.”
Vasyl said that, in his opinion, the prices of drones are inflated on the domestic market, with three or four drones costing $120,000, which can make collecting donations difficult.
The Ukrainian cabinet has proposed directing military personnel’s income tax away from local authorities and towards the production of drones, weapons and ammunition. Local government bodies have accumulated a surplus of £1.8m as a result of military income tax so far this year, according to prime minister Denys Shmyhal. The proposed law is currently making its way through Parliament.
Military personnel we talked to believe that the government disclosing how prices for drones are calculated would help bring prices down. Transparency would help in other ways too; journalists at Ukrainian investigative site Bihus.Info found a 650 million hryvnia (£14.7m) advance payment for drones of allegedly dubious quality to a company run by a former MP.
The Ukrainian defence ministry did not respond to openDemocracy's request for comment.
Struggling to meet demand
Ukrainian civil institutions, such as local authorities, have procured drones, including civilian craft, worth 775 million hryvnia (£17.5m) this year, according to the country’s public procurement system Prozorro.
In the past month alone, Ukrainian first-person view (FPV) drones destroyed more than £115m worth of Russian military equipment, according to the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine. This included a £50m Russian Tor air defence system designed to destroy planes, helicopters and cruise missiles.
The Ukrainian Ministry of Defense recently announced that since February 2022 it has adopted 28 models of drones of various types from Ukrainian manufacturers into service or operation. Ten of these models are already under government contracts for mass production, according to the ministry. Their names and volumes are not disclosed for security reasons. The ministry added that thousands of UAVs and military units have been delivered to the Ukrainian army.
“Next year, you will see, drones will not be an advantage [in addition to shells], but a replacement one for another, because there are fewer and fewer shells” — Dmytro Kovalchuk, drone manufacturer
Yet Russia is also striking Ukrainian equipment and attacking Ukrainian cities with Iranian Shahed drones and its own cheaper and lighter Italmas drones. US intelligence has also warned that Russia is building a drone-manufacturing factory that will open in the new year – which will further increase Ukraine’s need for drones.
The Ukrainian government has sought to scale up the drone production capacity in the private sector by introducing new incentives, such as exempting imported goods for the production and repair of drones from customs duties and VAT, and giving manufacturers the opportunity to earn up to 25% of the cost of state contracts for drones.
But Dmytro Kovalchuk, the CEO of Warbird, a Ukrainian drone manufacturer, told openDemocracy that, although drone production in Ukraine has increased tenfold since February 2022, manufacturers are struggling to meet demand.
Kovalchuk said: “Public procurement is now a very clear, very stable affair. The state can and wants to buy as much as possible, it can definitely buy more than all Ukrainian manufacturers can produce, at least, probably twice as much.”
He added: “[Warbirds] started [making] three drones per month, now we produce 160 a month. In March, we will reach 500. And the state helps in this. It's an extremly fast pace.”
Currently, most of the unmanned drones used by the Ukrainian military are created at small production sites set up by drone developers themselves.
Stressing their importance, Kovalchuk said: “We produce very few [weapons] in Ukraine. We have no other way but to produce even more different types of strike drones.
“Drones can help our artillery in cases where there are no shells,” he continued. Ukraine has a critical shortage of shells, with the EU and NATO struggling to provide the amount promised, and Ukraine itself unable to produce enough domestically.
“Next year, you will see, drones will not be an advantage [in addition to shells], but a replacement one for another, because there are fewer and fewer shells,” Kovalchuk added.