Brussels 16.02.2024 A group of seven European nations under the leadership of Latvia and the United Kingdom have joined a coalition committed to producing and supplying Ukraine with one million drones. The initiative was announced by Latvia last month, but plans advanced this week when the Baltic nation signed a letter of intent to build out a drone project together with Ukraine, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Denmark and Germany.

However there were no indications of timeline for the delivery of the drones to Ukraine. Previously the European Union admitted last month that it would not reach its self-imposed target of supplying Ukraine with one million 155mm artillery shells by March 2024.

“[The] Drone Coalition intends to deliver one million drones to Ukraine,” said Latvia’s MoD in statement.
“By signing the letter of intent, countries have agreed to commit resources for manufacturing of drones and will deliver these drones and spare parts to Ukraine, where they will be tested and [the] Coalition will also train Ukrainian troops on how to use them and integrate with other technologies,” the statement said.

The Drone Coalition will contribute not only to the strengthening of the Ukraine military capabilities, but also to the development of Latvia’s military industry, said Minister Sprūds. Latvia aims at spending at least €10M to bring the Coalition into the next phase. Ministry of Defense has received information about drones for Ukraine and has already contacted the local companies, inviting them to propose the structure of drone and spare part delivery to Ukraine military.

“Drone technologies have had an enormous impact on military strategies and tactical control. Drones are an instrumental element of Ukraine’s capabilities – they are efficient for both reconnaissance and attacking enemy targets. Coalition will ensure efficient and swift delivery of drones to Ukraine. It will also enhance our national and allied UAV capabilities,” Defence Minister Andris Sprūds pointed out.

Next to the mass producing FPV drones, Kyiv authorities are willing to increase production of long-range strike types.

“To achieve this 100 times growth of the drones market, we as a government created a so called ‘Fast Track for Innovations,’ meaning that we simplified dozens of bureaucratic procedures and got rid of unnecessary ones, [including introduction of a] favorable tax regime, [lifting of] import duties, and many more,” he explained.

Ukrainian naval drones have been used to devastating effect recently against Russian warships in Black sea, where they sunk at least 20% of Russian fleet.
Ukraine’s military intelligence agency claimed that a special operations unit sank the Ropucha-class landing ship “Cesar Kunikov” with Magura V unmanned surface vessels (USVs) on February 13.

Video footage posted on social media showed the drones striking the ship off the coast of Crimea, next to Alupka.

The decision of a group of seven to supply Ukraine with drones was announced by NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during Ministerial meeting on February 15.

“A group of Allies is coming together with the goal of delivering one million drones to Ukraine.
20 NATO Allies have also agreed to form a demining coalition.
All of this will help to save Ukrainian lives” – Stoltenberg concluded, informing about broadening of the group of willing within the Alliance.