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Ukraine’s Drone Boom Goes Global as Kyiv Secures First Wartime Defense Exports
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Ukrainian arms producers have received the first wartime licenses to export their goods abroad, in a policy shift aimed at bringing in investment and expanding domestic weapons production, according to Reuters on February 12.
Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said in a social media statement that the country’s annual defense-sector production capacity exceeds $55 billion, without naming the companies granted permission.
A source with knowledge of the matter told Reuters that dozens of export applications had been approved.
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Umerov said Ukraine’s defense-industrial base now has an annual production capacity of more than $55 billion, adding that in sectors such as unmanned aerial vehicles, electronic warfare, and reconnaissance, output potential already exceeds the volume of domestic procurement.
He said coordinated exports would help attract investment, scale production, and accelerate the rollout of new technologies for Ukraine’s armed forces.
“We need investment to produce the drones that our guys on the battlefield need today,” President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters on February 11, according to Reuters.
Zelenskyy added that drones are already being produced in the UK under a joint initiative and that he would soon take delivery of the first Ukrainian-made drone produced in Germany, where he was expected to attend the Munich Security Conference.
Umerov said the interdepartmental government commission that approves arms exports had met for the first time in eight months, as Kyiv moves to formalize oversight of a sector that has rapidly expanded during the war.
Ukrainian officials say the defense industry now includes more than 1,000 companies that have scaled up production since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, while Zelenskyy has said Ukraine has about 450 drone producers.
The export licenses and the resumption of the commission’s work come as Kyiv seeks to turn that industrial growth into a longer-term model that attracts investment, keeps factories running at higher utilization, and supports joint projects with foreign partners.
It was reported on February 9 that Ukraine planned to broaden weapons exports and set up 10 export centers across Europe in 2026, part of an effort to sell systems refined under battlefield conditions and channel revenues back into domestic defense production and research.
Earlier, it was reported that Germany is looking at federal investment guarantees and deeper market integration to support Ukraine’s defense industry, including joint ventures and procurement collaborations that could underpin broader export and production expansion.
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