The drone coalition has collected almost €500M for the Ukrainian Armed Forces, and Ukraine is seeking foreign customers for its domestic defense industry.

The Latvian-initiated drone coalition has raised almost €500M to purchase drones for the military. Denmark and the Netherlands announced a €400M joint drone purchase, Canada – €70M, Latvia – €10M, and Lithuania – €3M. Currently, active negotiations are ongoing with other members of the coalition.

At the same time, it is worth noting that the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine has concluded contracts for purchasing weapons and military equipment in the amount of ₴582B ($14.5B). Almost 50% of these contracts are with Ukrainian manufacturers.

However, the Ukrainian defense industry has aggressively developed to such an extent that the Ukrainian budget cannot take full advantage of total manufacturing capacity. This capacity now reaches $20B, but Ukraine has only $6B available to purchase weapons. Therefore, the state is encouraging international partners to invest in the Ukrainian defense industry and to buy munitions for the Defense Forces of Ukraine from Ukrainian manufacturers.