U.S. to Give Ukraine Millions to Build More Long-Range Drones

The move, confirmed by a Pentagon official, is in line with a U.S. policy change aimed at shoring up Ukraine’s ability to fight the war against Russia with its own weapons.

The United States has agreed to give Ukraine $800 million in military aid that will go toward manufacturing long-range drones to use against Russian troops, Ukraine’s leader said on Monday, fulfilling a longtime Ukrainian goal of getting Washington to buy weapons from manufacturers in Ukraine instead of primarily in America.

A Pentagon official, speaking anonymously because of the sensitivity of the issue, confirmed the move, which comes as the United States shifts its policy and moves toward shoring up Ukraine’s ability to fight the war with its own weapons and on its own terms.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said in a briefing with journalists Monday that the money was just the first U.S. disbursement for Kyiv’s weapons production and long-range capabilities.

The decision to support long-range drone production in Ukraine may be a kind of consolation prize for Mr. Zelensky, who — despite repeated pleas — has so far failed to persuade Western partners to lift restrictions on using their long-range missiles to strike deep inside Russia.

The decision also shows a change in tactics for the West.

The United States has given more than $61 billion in security aid to Ukraine since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022. But it has long resisted giving money directly to Ukraine for weapons, instead portraying its support for Kyiv in the war as a way to support American companies and minimize the potential for corruption. U.S. military aid packages to Ukraine have shrunk recently, partly because of concerns about dwindling Pentagon stockpiles.

In April, Denmark became the first country to join a Ukrainian campaign called Manufacturing Freedom, which aims to raise $10 billion for the production of Ukrainian weapons. The Danish government agreed to give about $28.5 million to buy weapons from Ukrainian manufacturers. Canada and the Netherlands later signed on.

More than two and a half years into the war, Mr. Zelensky is trying to reinvigorate Western support in whatever way he can. Russia continues to advance in the east of Ukraine and now occupies about 20 percent of the country despite record Russian troop casualties in September, more than 1,200 a day.

For weeks, Mr. Zelensky has been promoting what he calls a “victory plan,” visiting the United States and Europe to try to persuade Western leaders to send more weapons and to give Ukraine more of a chance to negotiate with Russia from a position of strength.

But, so far, no one has signed on to that plan, which relies largely on increased Western support, and Mr. Zelensky’s visits were overshadowed by the war in the Middle East, Hurricane Milton and the looming U.S. election.

Mr. Zelensky told journalists on Monday that U.S. officials were evaluating his plan, but said he did not expect any decision until after the Nov. 5 election. He also said the majority of Ukraine’s NATO allies wanted to invite Ukraine formally to join the military alliance, but a few, including the United States and Germany, were more cautious. Russia has pushed strongly against NATO membership for Ukraine.

Drones have been crucial for Ukraine’s long-range capabilities, especially while the country has been waiting for the West to sign off on long-range missiles.

Ukraine’s defense minister, Rustem Umerov, said on Monday that Ukraine had invested more than $4 billion in its defense industry. Appearing alongside the U.S. defense secretary, Lloyd J. Austin III, in Kyiv, he said that long-range drones could hit targets more than 1,000 miles away and that they had already destroyed more than 200 military facilities in Russia.

“Our drones have become a real threat to the enemy,” said Mr. Umerov. But he said his country still needed investment from international allies.

Western officials recently praised Ukrainian drone attacks against ammunition depots near Toropets, a town in western Russia, in late September. The officials said it was one of the best examples of Ukraine’s successfully attacking Russian ammunition dumps, fuel bunkers, command posts and Moscow’s overall ability to supply its forces.

The officials said the Ukrainian one-way attack drones had hit a series of depots storing Russian ammunition, bombs and missiles, as well as ammunition purchased from North Korea. The first strike, on Sept. 18, was so large it caused an explosion that registered 2.7 on the Richter scale and ignited fires covering an area almost four miles wide.

Overall, the strikes over several days destroyed an estimated 100,000 tons of ammunition — the largest loss of Russian and North Korean-supplied ammunition since the war started, the officials said.

On Friday in Brussels, Mr. Austin said that the Ukrainians had used Ukrainian long-range drones to take out “a number of strategic-level ammunition supply points, which has had an impact on the battlefield.” He also said Ukraine could produce those drones in great numbers at a small fraction of the cost of a precision-guided missile and that they “have proven to be very effective and accurate.”

Lara Jakes, Anastasia Kuznietsova and Oleksandr Chubko contributed reporting.

Our Coverage of the War in Ukraine

• A Ukrainian Loan Backed by Russian Assets: The United States and Europe are close to finalizing a plan to provide Ukraine with a $50 billion loan backed by Russia’s frozen central bank assets by the end of the year, Treasury Secretary Janet L. Yellen said.
• BRICS Summit: President Vladimir Putin of Russia, who is hosting a gathering of the so-called BRICS group that includes China and India, is hoping to use the meeting as a counterweight to the West.
• Unwavering Support: President Biden urged Germany and other Western allies not to waver in their support for Ukraine, using what may be his final trip to Europe as president to bolster the grueling fight against Russia’s invasion.

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