Ukraine has a “game-changing” plan to defeat Russia’s invading forces, its arms industry chief says, as Kyiv claims Vladimir Putin‘s forces have suffered over 414,000 casualties since the invasion began.
Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, Oleksander Kamyshin, has said that as Ukraine has ammunition needs “no single country can deliver” it is developing more cost-effective means to hold back Russia‘s army while maximising its domestic production.
“Domestic production is crucial,” Kamyshin told The Independent. “We can produce over one million first-person-view (FPV) drones this year plus thousands of drones that can fly over 1,000km, reaching as far as refineries in Russia. This is a game-changer.”
He added: “Our defence tech is really cool, and together with the newly formed force of unmanned drone systems, it will deliver results.”
The news comes as The General Staff of Ukraine‘s armed forces issued an update on Friday claiming a huge amount of Russian lives are being sacrificed in a bid to break Volodymyr Zelensky‘s forces.
According to its figures, Russia sustained 920 losses to its military personnel in just the week, with three aircraft, 17 tanks, 30 armored vehicles, 26 drones, 36 artillery systems, one air defense system and 54 other vehicles destroyed.
Ukraine claimed that 414,680 Russian personnel taken out of action since the war broke out, with over 10,000 of Putin’s artillery systems, and almost 700 anti-aircraft systems destroyed in the fighting.
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In his comments last month, Zelensky said “tens of thousands of civilians” had been killed in occupied areas of Ukraine, but said exact figures would not be available until the war was over.
“We don’t know how many of our civilians they killed. We don’t,” he said.
It comes as Ukraine claims it downed four drones launched by Russian forces overnight.
In a post on Telegram, the country’s airforce said Russia targeted Ukraine with five anti-aircraft guided missiles and four Iranian-made Shahed drones.
Ukraine‘s air defences destroyed the drones, but Kyiv did not reveal what happened to the missiles.