Small drones have become popular in Ukraine “because probably every soldier wants to have his own drone on the battlefield,” Tolchynskyi added. His company has supplied the Ukrainian army with about 150 drones and plans to increase the number of deliveries to 1000 by the end of this year.” A Ukrainian soldier controls a drone in Bakhmut, Donetsk region, on Sept. 25, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Ukraine needs all categories of drones: large, small and kamikaze,” Ivan Tolchynskyi, CEO of Atlas Aerospace, a manufacturer of compact drones, said at a conference in Lviv this month. Ukraine’s Ministry of Digital Transformation and General Staff announced this month that it will spend nearly $500,000 to purchase about 1,000 drones.
Ukraine is also supported by drones and specialized equipment not intended for combat operations, such as mine detectors and medical drones supplied by Canadian company Draganfly to various NGOs. “We originally came to Ukraine with our medical drone, which carries about 30 pounds of temperature-sensitive material – such as insulin or medicines – for search-and-rescue missions on the battlefield,” said Cameron Chell, president and CEO of Draganfly.
Drones help defend Ukrainian airspace and territory, but the country also needs strong protection in cyberspace to fend off attacks from Russian hackers. “On average, we register about 200 attacks every day. Sometimes it’s 500 a day and sometimes 50, but it happens every day,” said Oleksandr Bornyakov, deputy minister for digital transformation.