The commander in chief of Ukraine’s armed forces on March 18 again touted the use of drones on the battlefield, saying that they are becoming more and more important in the fight against Russian forces.
Making his remarks on the same day that the government approved a major expenditure for the purchase of the weapons, Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskiy said on Telegram that Ukrainian troops should be equipped with the most effective and newest weapons. He also emphasized the training of specialists in electronic warfare, drones, and automated control systems.
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"Unmanned systems occupy a prominent place here. Therefore, the development of the use of unmanned systems is my priority,” he said.
Ukraine is working on speeding up the implementation of innovative technologies and ensuring the "adaptability of certain bodies of the military management" when it comes to these defenses, he added.
Last week, after visiting Ukrainian positions in the Zaporizhzhya region, Syrskiy said that fighting has been characterized by the broad use of drones of all types along with artillery and mortar fire.
"Under such circumstances, unmanned attack systems are gradually becoming the main strike weapon of ground units in a combined military battle," he said on March 14.
Syrskiy made it clear on March 18 that the search is on for what he called "asymmetric solutions" to obtain an advantage on the battlefield.
"We take a comprehensive approach to planning our needs, first of all taking into account actual experience from the battlefield,” Syrskiy said. “But the most important task that technologies and innovations must perform is the preservation of the lives of our soldiers."
As Syrskiy touted the use of drones in warfare, the Ukrainian government’s cabinet of ministers decided to allocate an additional 5 billion hryvnyas ($129 million) for the purchase of more of them for the armed forces, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal announced.
"The funds will be directed to the purchase of drones necessary for our defenders on the front lines," Shmyhal said.
Ukraine is trying to increase its own production of weapons in order to reduce dependence on supplies from Western partners. Kyiv’s troops are struggling with a severe shortage of artillery shells across a front line that stretches more than 900 kilometers in eastern and southern Ukraine.