Hi! Thank you for subcription and your interest in innovations that shape the future of warfare! If you don’t know me yet, I’m Yulia Drozd, a journalist in Kyiv, Ukraine. I have covered Ukrainian and international affairs for the past 12 years. I was in Kyiv on day one of the Russian full-scale invasion and I choose to stay in Ukraine to tell the world what is actually happening. Despite all the hardships, It’s privilege to be a journalist in a country that makes headlines worldwide and has stood up to such a big bully as Russia.
Stay with us, on the bright side.
I’m starting my first newsletter about Ukraine’s military tech just after another one big attack. What do we consider big here? Well, we do have our metrics. Russia has just launched over 400 drones and 15 missiles that flew into central Ukraine, mostly towards Kyiv. That’s big, because ‘usual’ attacks usually mean just around or slightly over a hundred of drones and no missiles, mostly closer to the frontline (but that’s still an ATTACK). But other then an air raid alert on the app ad horrifying videos like this online nothing really indicates to an average resident that there’s an attack going on.
That’s because Ukrainian air defence is no joke.
In March 2026, the effectiveness of Ukraine’s air defense increased to 89.9%, having shot down or neutralized 5,935 Russian missiles and drones. This result reflects the implementation of new technologies and improved performance of the Defense Forces. This figure exceeds February’s results (85.6%) and brings Ukraine closer to its goal of intercepting 95% of targets. No defence is 100% efficient, but 90% is not a perfect result for president Zelenskyy either - he wants a better one. And remember, that Ukraine is more than 600 000 square kilometers large. Kyiv only is like one third of Israel.
How did we come to this? Out of necessity. War, while being a tragedy and chrocical stress for many, also means and opportunity for development for others. Bright and brave Ukrainian minds seized this opportunity and in 4 years turned Ukraine from a recipient of aid into emerging military power leading in the drone warfare.
Middle Eastern countries are now the first to receive Ukrainian expertise in shooting down drones. And President Zelenskyy wants to export not just the drones (you can’t buy them with warheads bypassing the government, like any other weaponry like Patriot or Taurus), but the whole system that includes interceptors, production and knowledge how to use them.
A representative of one of the foreign companies producing drones in Ukraine just told me they are not even thinking about producing interceprotrs because Ukrainian companies are now the best in this in terms of costs and the speed of production (2000 a day per the President).
Interceptors are one of the reasons Kyiv is now better protected. Co-founder of the Cotra Drones says the capital of Kyiv is one of the most saturated with differrent means of countering drones - from jammers to radars to layers that include mobile groups and Patriot operators. Once, US military feared it would be difficult for Ukrainians to learn to operate them. Now the Americans admit they themselves can lear from Ukrainian colleagues.
Speaking of Patriot systems, Ukraine stil needs more of those expensive PAC-3 missiles for them to counter ballistics. Interestingly, while Ukraine has problems shooting down Russian ballistic missile, Moscow apparently can`t produce enough of them (in recent attacks they used only 7 of these Iskanders, before they would use more than 10 for such massive attacks).
During one of our regular meetings, President Zelenskyy told me and my colleagues that now there are 3 options: either Ukraine gets a license for producing those missiles, either finds the alternative (Ukraine now the first in line for testing French SAMP-T ssystems, hopefully this year) or invents something of its own.
The first Ukrainian ballistic missiles with a range of 850 km should be ready this summer, according to the CEO Fire Point (and he believes Ukraine should launche like 20 of them at once towards Moscow). So who knows maybe the next big thing will be Ukrainian interceptor for ballistics.
So my next newsletter will be about Ukraiian missiles. Stay tuned. And feel free to support my work and share this newsletter.