Ukraine has signed “Drone Deal” agreements with 11 countries. Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar came first, in the spring; Finland was the eleventh, on 23 September. The others are Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway.
Drone Deal is Kyiv’s own label, and the texts are not public. President Volodymyr Zelensky has described them as “annual financing for a defined volume and a fixed number of years”, covering drones and air defence. The EU announced its own drone deal with Ukraine on 15 July, funded from its €90 billion support loan. Canada has signed a first document, and the United States only a letter of intent, Radio Liberty reported.
The export rules took effect on 8 July, under Cabinet Resolution 875. Every export needs a permit from the State Service for Export Control, which has 30 days to answer; silence counts as consent. Exporters pay a fee of 20 percent of the value of finished goods and 30 percent for components. Sales to Drone Deal countries can skip the inter-agency commission unless an item is on a critical list.
The system has been slow to start. On 2 October Davyd Aloyan, deputy secretary of the National Security and Defence Council, said the resolution “as such has not started working”. Two weeks later he told Forbes that more than 450 applications had been reviewed, more than 90 percent approved, and over 20 approved for finished products. The two statements are hard to square.
The first export of finished combat drones went to the United States. F-Drones received a permit on 1 July and delivered 2,000 F10 drones to the US military by August, the company said.
On 5 October a decree rebuilt the export commission with Aloyan as chair. On 12 October parliament passed at first reading a bill sending all export permit fees to the armed forces.
The ministry puts Ukraine’s defence production capacity at about $50 billion this year, against state purchases of no more than $13 billion, the Centre for Eastern Studies reported. Only the surplus is meant for export.
