Ukraine has targeted Russia’s oil export capacity over the past week as its forces have intensified counteroffensives against advancing Russian troops.
According to latest estimates, Ukraine has halved the Russian rate of advance in the past three months.
President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has finalised agreements with several Gulf States to export Ukrainian drone technology know-how in exchange for joint drone production support.
On Wednesday Zelenskyy said: “We already have agreements with Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Qatar. We are working with Jordan. We are in communication with Kuwait, now also Iraq and Bahrain.”
He added that the countries are interested in Ukraine’s experience in countering drones and building a layered system-wide defence against modern threats.
Ukrainian Commander-in-Chief General Olexander Syrskii said the rate at which Ukraine can manufacture drones has been key to its overall success in defending the country and prolonging the war for more than four years.
“In March, the number of combat sorties of drone interceptors and the number of targets destroyed increased by almost 55 per cent compared to February,” Syrskii said on a social media platform on Monday.
He said Ukraine has been able to inflict heavy losses on advancing Russian forces with the help of First Person View (FPV) drones.
Since the onset of the war with Russia in 2022, Ukraine has become a ground zero for drone warfare innovation.
On March 26, Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces Command reported that it had eliminated a Russian advance near the border of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions and liberated the village of Berezove.
Syrskii said that while Russia continues to advance overall, Ukraine has reclaimed 470 sq km (180 sq miles) of occupied territory this year, marking its first territorial gains since 2023.
According to the latest estimates from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Ukrainian forces have liberated 334.06 sq km (128.98 sq miles), though the think tank noted that its “conservative mapping methodology underestimates Ukrainian advances”.
Also read: Nighttime strikes kill 5 in Ukraine
Follow us
