Ukraine launching tech cluster to boost military capability
CTV
The Ukrainian government is launching an initiative Wednesday to streamline and promote innovation in the development of drones and other technologies that have been critical during Russia's war in Ukraine.
The Ukrainian government is launching an initiative Wednesday to streamline and promote innovation in the development of drones and other technologies that have been critical during Russia's war in Ukraine.
As part of the initiative dubbed BRAVE1, the government hopes to bring state, military, and private sector developers working on defense issues together into a tech cluster that would give Ukraine a battlefield advantage.
"Considering the enemy that is right next to us and its scale, we definitely need to develop the military tech so that we can defend ourselves," Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's minister of digital transformation, said.
Fedorov told The Associated Press ahead of Wednesday's official announcement that the government had earmarked more than 100 million hryvnias (about US$2.7 million) to fund projects that have the potential to help Ukraine win the 14-month conflict.
"There are many people on the battlefield now of the young generation that can work with technologies, and they need them," he said.
Both Ukraine and Russia make frequent use of unmanned aerial vehicles for reconnaissance and in attacks. Russia extensively uses Iran's long-range Shahed-136 exploding drones, to damage Ukrainian power plants and instill fear in civilians. The Ukrainian government launched a public fundraising drive last year asking foreign donors to help it build an "army of drones."
The Moscow-appointed head of the port city of Sevastopol in Crimea, Mikhail Razvozhayev, reported this week that Russian forces destroyed a Ukrainian sea drone that attempted to attack the harbour and another one blew up. Ukrainian officials stopped short of openly claiming responsibility, as they had done after earlier attacks on Crimea, which Russia annexed in 2014.
