President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Decree No. 51/2024 on the creation of a new type of military — the Forces of Unmanned Systems.
He instructed the government and the General Staff of the Armed Forces to work out the issue of creating a separate type of troops in the structure of the Armed Forces. After processing, he decided to submit proposals for consideration by the National Security and Defense Council.
In an evening video address, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that the decree on the creation of the Unmanned Systems Forces is something that should give concrete results in the near future.
"This year should become decisive in many aspects. And, obviously, on the battlefield. Drones — unmanned systems — have proven effective in combat on land, in the sky, and at sea. Ukraine has really changed the security situation in the Black Sea thanks to drones. Repelling assaults on the ground is largely the work of drones," he added.
Therefore, there are now the following tasks for the army, the Ministry of Defense and the government:
- create special full-time positions for work with drones, special units;
- develop effective training;
- systematize experience;
- constantly scale production and attract the best ideas, the best specialists in this field.
"We continue to reboot the state system — those elements of it that are needed for Ukraine to achieve its goals," Zelenskyy summarized.
In this context, the Minister of Digital Transformation, Mykhailo Fedorov, recalled that a year ago in the Armed Forces of Ukraine, companies of strike drones were created at the level of brigades. In particular, the Ministry of Digital took part in their development. According to Fedorov, in a year drones have fundamentally changed the situation on the battlefield — they affect the absolute majority of Russian equipment. Meanwhile, naval drones "completely changed the rules of warfare at sea."
- The other day, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Valery Zaluzhnyi wrote an article emphasizing the need for the development of unmanned systems, which he called "perhaps the only tool for getting out of positional military operations."