Interceptor drone deficit hits Ukraine as production lags

Ukraine is facing a shortage of interceptor drones as manufacturers are unable to meet the country’s needs, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced.

He said the problem is no longer about funding but about production capacity, Caliber.Az reports via foreign media.

“There are not enough of them, and the issue is no longer money. There are production problems—manufacturers cannot produce as many as we currently need,” Zelenskyy noted.

Ukraine has struggled to scale up interceptor drone production, initially signing contracts with only a handful of domestic and foreign manufacturers because the technology is new and mass‑production capacity was just being established this year. Domestic contracts were awarded but output remained limited as production lines were still developing.

President Zelenskyy and Ukrainian officials set ambitious targets to produce hundreds to 1,000 interceptor drones per day to counter Russian Shahed‑type attacks, but meeting these goals has been difficult due to strikes on industrial facilities and logistical challenges in scaling production.

Ukraine is actively investing state funding and government contracts to boost its domestic interceptor drone industry, with pledges to buy all output that manufacturers can deliver this year and ongoing negotiations to secure more resources.

Broader defence production gaps — including for unmanned systems — are linked to supply chain limitations, funding constraints, and underutilised manufacturing potential, which constrain how rapidly Ukraine can expand drone output despite strong demand.

By Jeyhun Aghazada