Ukrainian army needs hundreds of thousands of drones - Reznikov

That's according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, Ukrinform reports with reference to the Telegram channel of the Ukrainian Defense Ministry.

The minister of defense met with more than a hundred Ukrainian developers and manufacturers of UAVs. Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov, Minister of Strategic Industries Pavlo Riabikin and a representative of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine took part in the meeting at Reznikov's invitation.

Reznikov emphasized the importance of supporting the Ukrainian UAV market, particularly drones of a wide range of application — air, ground and water.

"This is about adjusting artillery fire, inflicting damage on the enemy (strike drones), the delivery of military equipment, evacuation of the wounded, etc. Currently, the needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces are measured by hundreds of thousands of UAVs of various modifications. Work on closing these needs is underway. In particular, more UAVs were put into operation in the first eight months of the full-scale war than in the last five years. I repeat, the independence of the military industry is one of the factors of the country's defense capability. And currently one of the key areas of the Ministry of Defense is the development and support of the Ukrainian UAV market, Reznikov said.

The participants in the meeting discussed the need to create an association that would represent the interests of producers. The positions of both the producers and the minister coincided.