Kiev:
President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Tuesday ordered the creation of a separate branch of the Ukrainian armed forces to deal with drones, weapons that he and military officials say are crucial in the fight against Russia.
Zelenskiy signed a decree calling on the government and the General Staff of the Armed Forces to “work out issues on the creation within the Ukrainian Armed Forces of a separate force for drone systems.”
“I have just signed a decree that will launch the creation of a separate department within our armed forces – a drone system force,” Zelenskiy said in his late-night video address.
“This is not a question for the future. Rather, it must deliver concrete results in the very near future. This year should be decisive in many ways. And clearly on the battlefield. Drone systems have proven their effectiveness on land, in the air and on the seas.”
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's Minister of Digital Transformation, said the separate branch would provide “a powerful boost” to the military's technological development.
Over the past year, he said, drones had “fundamentally changed the situation on the battlefield. They are effective in stopping Russian attacks and supporting counter-attacks by Ukrainian forces.”
According to Zelenskiy's decree, the results of the investigation would be submitted to the policy-setting National Security and Defense Council.
Zelenskiy has cited drones and production domestically and with partner countries as a key element in waging the war against Russia since Moscow's invasion two years ago this month.
In December, the president promised that Ukraine would produce a million drones by 2024.
Government officials have said Ukraine wants to produce tens of thousands of drones every month. No current production figures are available, but since the start of the war, drone production has increased dramatically, with dozens of companies developing and producing different models.
The Commander-in-Chief of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Valeriy Zaluzhnyi, whose position is questionable given the differences with the president, said in a commentary for CNN last week that drones were crucial to the conduct of the war.
“Crucially, these unmanned systems – such as drones – along with other types of advanced weapons, provide Ukraine with the best way to avoid getting into a positional war, where we do not have the advantage,” Zaluzhnyi wrote.
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