Ukraine's Ministry of Defence is responding to reports that it has allegedly not purchased a single kamikaze drone from Ukroboronprom since the start of the full-scale war. In response to these allegations, the ministry says it has already adopted 28 different models of domestically produced unmanned aerial vehicles.

This was stated by the press service of the Ministry of Defence. The ministry notes that the next UAVs can be put into service only after they have been tested and the needs of the General Staff have been identified.

Since 22 February 2022, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has successfully introduced 28 different models of unmanned aerial vehicles of various types manufactured in Ukraine into its arsenal. This list includes 9 models of kamikaze drones, 3 of which are aircraft, and 6 models of FPV drones.

In addition, several thousand unmanned aerial vehicles and drones are already in service in the Armed Forces of Ukraine as part of the procurement process carried out by the Ministry of Defence.

"The development of Ukrainian production of weapons and military equipment, in particular reconnaissance, attack drones, kamikaze drones and barrage munitions, is a priority for the Ministry of Defence," the statement said.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Defence, in autumn 2022, the ministry simplified procedures for inventors and manufacturers of weapons and equipment. These changes have significantly reduced the timeframe for the adoption of new weapons and equipment by the Armed Forces of Ukraine from the usual 2 years to just 3-5 weeks.

In addition, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine has signed agreements with some domestic companies for the serial production of 10 models of unmanned aerial vehicles. The ministry stressed that under current rules, there is a ban on entering into contracts for the purchase of non-existent serial models, and all purchases are made based on the actual needs identified by the General Staff.

As of 20 July 2023, the Ministry of Defence of Ukraine received two proposals from companies that were previously part of Ukroboronprom and, following its reorganisation, became known as Ukrainian Defence Industry JSC.

"The testing of a single kamikaze drone, developed by one of the enterprises of Ukrainian Defence Industry JSC, has been completed. It is currently in the process of being approved for operation. After it is completed and the needs of the General Staff for this drone are determined, a decision will be made to purchase it for the Armed Forces," the ministry summed up.

As a reminder, Ukroboronprom project manager Oleh Boldyrev, better known as Martin Brest, unexpectedly revealed details about the production of drones at state-owned enterprises that are part of the former state concern, which has been transformed into a joint-stock company.

According to him, not a single drone has been ordered from Ukroboronprom enterprises. That is, there is no question of any serial production of drones at the enterprises of this organisation. He left this message in the comments to a Facebook post by Ukrainian journalist Oleksandr Surkov.

As OBOZREVATEL previously reported, the Armed Forces of Ukraine are using ultra-cheap disposable cargo drones Precision Payload Delivery System (PPDS) at the front. These UAVs are manufactured by the Australian company SYPAQ to provide logistics tasks in hard-to-reach places.

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