The Ministry of Defence has allocated an additional UAH 1.1 billion directly to the Armed Forces brigades for the purchase of drones.

Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced this at a government meeting on Friday, December 13.

The money to increase direct funding for the brigades was allocated on the instructions of President Volodymyr Zelenskyi, who gave it to the Cabinet of Ministers this week.

The direct funding is allocated to the brigades so that they can quickly cover the most important needs.

According to Denys Shmyhal, the Ministry of Defence will transfer UAH 4.3 billion to the military brigades this month, and over the past 11 months, such direct funding has amounted to UAH 27.2 billion.

The Prime Minister also said that in 10 months of 2024, the Government had spent UAH 229 billion on the purchase of military equipment, weapons and ammunition. As well as defense products, personal protective equipment, and food for the Security and Defense Forces of Ukraine.

Supply of drones

The Ministry of Defence of Ukraine reported that in 11 months of 2024, it had handed over more than 1.2 million drones of various types to the Ukrainian Defense Forces. The deliveries include reconnaissance, strike, and FPV kamikaze drones.

In particular, the military received more than 40,000 reconnaissance multirotor drones, including more than 12,000 night drones. The military also received 5,000 reconnaissance aircraft-type UAVs. Also, since the beginning of the year, more than 6,000 units of deep strike drones have been delivered, including An-196 Liutyi, Firepoint and others.

In addition, more than 2,000 reusable multi-rotor attack UAVs, such as NEMESIS, Kazhan, and Vampir, have been delivered to the army. The military also received more than 5,000 reusable FPV copters.

Another 1.1 million FPV kamikaze drones were delivered by the State Special Communications Service of Ukraine, ordered by the Ministry of Defence, to meet the needs of the Ukrainian Defense Forces’ combat units.

By the end of December, it is planned to transfer about 100,000 more drones.

According to Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umierov, the number of external drone crews in the Armed Forces of Ukraine increased sevenfold in 2024.