Russia aims to sabotage Ukraine's Drone Deals with partners
Photo: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy (president.gov.ua)
Intelligence agencies have obtained Russian documents outlining Russia's efforts to disrupt Ukraine’s contacts with partners under the Drone Deals initiative, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
According to a report by Oleh Luhovskyi, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine, Zelenskyy stated that Ukraine had obtained Russian documents outlining their strategy to counter Ukraine's contacts with partners under the Drone Deals initiative.
"The Russian political leadership has already identified Ukraine’s ability to attract additional investment as one of the main challenges, and cutting Ukraine off from investment and disrupting our bilateral agreements on cooperation in security and weapons production has been defined by Russia as a foreign policy priority," he notes.
According to the President of Ukraine, Russia's particular efforts in this context will be directed at countering Ukraine’s cooperation with partners in the Middle East and the Gulf.
Drone Deals
Ukraine initially proposed the Drone Deals format to the US as an option for strengthening air defense. The proposal involved exchanging Ukrainian drone defense technologies for American ballistic missile defense systems.
However, despite interest from US President Donald Trump and the US military leadership, no final decision has yet been made regarding the implementation of this initiative.
Later, Ukraine began expanding the circle of potential partners. In particular, Italy has already expressed interest in signing such an agreement, and the parties have agreed to explore the possibility of concluding it.
In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was negotiating the expansion of the Drone Deals program to new regions. He also hinted that the Caucasus might be among them.
Zelenskyy also recently announced that Ukraine was preparing new bilateral security agreements, as well as an expansion of the Drone Deals framework.
