by Max Hunder
KYIV (Reuters) – Ukraine will be able to carry out more drone attacks against Russian ships, Ukraine’s digital transformation minister told Reuters, following a recent series of raids.
“There will be more drones, more attacks and fewer Russian ships. That’s for sure,” Mykhailo Fedorov said in an interview on Friday, responding to a question about recent attacks near Crimea.
Ukraine this week launched several drone and missile attacks against Russia’s Black Sea fleet in and around the Crimean peninsula, annexed by Russia in 2014. In a sign of growing confidence, Kyiv recently claimed responsibility for attacks in the region.
Russia acknowledged a Ukrainian missile attack that damaged a warship and a submarine this week, but says it has repelled all drone raids at sea.
Mykhailo Fedorov posted a video on social media on Thursday that appears to have been filmed from a ship heading toward a much larger warship, followed by an explosion.
He then said that this attack was the work of Ukrainian systems financed by a government-run crowdfunding platform, which helps raise funds for the purchase of equipment, including drones.
Mykhailo Fedorov also said that Ukrainian drone production increased more than 100 times in 2023 compared to last year.
“I think production will increase 120 to 140 times by the end of the year, compared to the previous year,” he added.
According to the minister, Ukraine is currently testing artificial intelligence systems capable of locating targets several kilometers away and guiding drones to them, even if external communications are interrupted.
“We need AI, for example technology to find targets, like the Lancet (a Russian drone) does, so that a target can be located in electronic warfare and destroyed,” he said.
“Right now, this is all in the testing stage, but some drones we’re buying use AI to recognize targets. In a forest, they can detect a target and know if it’s there. “It involves a person, a tank or a particular vehicle. These technologies are actively used.”
(French version Benjamin Mallet)
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