“Our priority is to develop the most effective mechanisms for providing soldiers on the front lines with the necessary drones,” stated Denys Shmyhal, Minister of Defence of Ukraine. “We are working to increase the pace of supply so that each unit receives exactly what it needs to perform its combat tasks,” he added.
Arsen Zhumadilov, Director of the Defence Procurement Agency, highlighted that this milestone marks a significant achievement, though not a final one. “We are focusing on even larger volumes. We have launched additional tools for the mass supply of UAVs,” he said.
Among these tools are framework agreements through the Prozorro system and the DOT-Chain Defence platform. “The latter allows units to independently select the drones they need. We are working to ensure that the Armed Forces receive the necessary high-quality UAVs at the expense of the state budget,” Zhumadilov noted.
The Agency has introduced new procurement approaches to further scale up supplies. These include contracting based on tactical and technical specifications (TTS), allowing manufacturers to qualify through compliance rather than specific product names.
This method opens procurement to a broader group of manufacturers and fosters competition via transparent Prozorro tenders. As a result, it increases flexibility and efficiency in sourcing drones.
Meanwhile, the DOT-Chain Defence IT system functions as a digital marketplace, enabling military units to choose UAVs tailored to their operational needs. Currently, the platform is in pilot mode, with 12 combat brigades actively placing targeted orders for required drones.
