Ukraine strikes drone production, military support deal with Germany 

Ukraine and Germany have agreed a strategic defence partnership that will include cooperation in drone production and a boost for Kyiv’s air defences.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the deal at a news conference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Tuesday in Berlin. It will grant Germany access to Ukraine’s cutting-edge drone expertise, developed during its war against the Russian invasion, in exchange for additional German military support.

Zelenskyy said the cooperation covers “various types of drones, missiles, software and modern defence systems”.

In a joint declaration, the two countries said they will “strengthen cooperation in the air defence field”. Germany will “continue supporting Ukraine’s drone industry as well as establishing drone co-production ventures”, it added.

The German defence ministry said it had agreed to fund contracts for several hundred Patriot missiles from the United States. Ukraine desperately needs additional air defence systems amid nightly Russian drone and missile attacks.

Ukrainian Defence Minister Mykhailo Fedorov used social media to send thanks to German counterpart Boris Pistorius for the package, which he said was worth four billion euros ($4.7 billion), calling it “a massive boost for our air defence… to protect our cities and critical infrastructure”.

Ukraine has the production capacity to turn out twice as much military equipment as it is currently deploying but lacks the funding to step up output, according to Zelenskyy.

“We simply don’t have enough money,” he said.

Merz said the deal will not benefit only Ukraine. “It’s also beneficial for us, for our security, because no army in Europe has been as battle-tested in recent decades as Ukraine’s,” he noted.

The German leader added that the agreement also includes the exchange of digital combat data for the development of new weapons systems.

The two leaders met as hopes have risen that the European Union will soon be able to provide Ukraine with a 90-billion-euro ($105bn) loan.

The facility was blocked by Hungary last month. However, nationalist Prime Minister Viktor Orban lost elections on Sunday and his successor, Peter Magyar, is expected to reverse that stance once he takes office.

Attack on Dnipro

Ukraine’s need for additional arms to defend itself against the Russian onslaught was illustrated again on Tuesday as Moscow launched further attacks.

A missile attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro killed four people and injured at least 21, regional authorities reported.

Oleksandr Ganzha, head of the Dnipropetrovsk region, posted images of shattered shop windows as he reported that 10 of the wounded were in “serious condition” with “shrapnel wounds, cuts and fractures”.

Russian troops have captured a sliver of territory in the wider Dnipropetrovsk region although it is not one of the four Ukrainian regions that Moscow annexed after its invasion.

Another attack in the southern city of Kherson killed a 52-year-old woman. The drone strike also left one man seriously wounded, authorities said.

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

United States diplomatic efforts to end the war have stalled with Washington currently focused more on its joint war with Israel on Iran.

The deputy US ambassador to the United Nations told the Security Council this week that it will “continue to push for a negotiated and durable end” to the war on Ukraine, but Washington has increasingly adopted Moscow’s narratives regarding the conflict since President Donald Trump took office.