Lithuanian partners can prevent Russia from copying Ukrainian development of new drones – ambassador

Lithuanian partners can help Ukraine get rid of its dependence on Chinese-made components in the production of drones and prevent Russia from copying Ukrainian developments of new UAVs.

Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Lithuania Petro Beshta said this in an interview with Ukrinform.

"There is a very promising company in Lithuania - Tektonika, which is already manufacturing high-tech products. They are building a chip factory in cooperation with Taiwanese partners. In a few years, they will produce their own chips. And right now, they could start producing components for our drones, which would help solve the problem we need to deal with now: dependence on Chinese components," Beshta said.

According to him, switching to other components would be the best way out, which would prevent China from restricting Ukrainian companies' access to the necessary spare parts. This would also help solve another problem: Ukrainian drone technology, which is being developed on the basis of Chinese components, is being copied by Russians and reproduced on a larger scale. "Therefore, the transition to non-Chinese components is also extremely important from a security point of view - so that Russia does not have access to them. It is also important that these components are of higher quality and more reliable," the Ukrainian diplomat said.

As Ukrinform reported, Lithuanian Minister of Economy and Innovation Aušrinė Armonaitė visited Kyiv in March to present opportunities for bilateral cooperation in the military-industrial complex and the creation of defense enterprises in Lithuania.