Ukraine's British-made drones will smash Putin's forces 'within months'

By Emily Wright, World News Reporter

A UK-Ukraine project to make interceptor drones to fight Russia could be realised within months (Image: Getty)

Ukraine and the UK are working to launch a joint production of interceptor drones to counter Russian Shahed-type drone swarm attacks. The UK Minister of State for Defence Readiness and Industry, Luke Pollard, has said that the plan – known as Project Octopus – is currently in talks and could move quickly into production.

"Very shortly, we'll be producing around 2,000 drones a month, deliberately shipping all of them to Ukraine so they can be used to intercept Russian drones," Mr Pollard said earlier this week at the Defence Industries Forum in Kyiv. He added that initial production will be based in the UK and organised with enough flexibility to respond to changing battlefield needs. "The UK is outstanding at R&D and advanced manufacture, so we can add something that our Ukrainian friends don't have in this respect," he said, adding that the UK hopes to run further industrial projects with Ukraine, including the production of glide bombs.

These interceptor drones have been proved effective against Shahed/Geran-2 strike drones used by Russia to attack Ukrainian cities (Image: Getty)

"We're starting with drones for obvious reasons. But in general, Ukraine is an essential partner for us in terms of creating the technologies we need to deter Russia and to re-arm Europe," he concluded, according to Bloomberg.

Last month, Ukraine and the UK signed an agreement to produce state-of-the-art Ukrainian interceptor drones. It will be mass-produced in the UK, with plans to scale up to thousands per month for delivery to Ukraine in support of its fight for freedom against Russia.

"Interceptor drones are considerably cheaper than regular air defence missiles and are proving to be highly effective in countering the waves of one-way attack drones Russia continues to launch at Ukraine’s cities," the UK Ministry of Defence said in its press release on September 11. "They fly quickly to intercept incoming drones and missiles, destroying them before they reach their targets."

It emphasised that these interceptor drones have demonstrated their effectiveness against Shahed/Geran-2 strike drones used by Russia to attack Ukrainian cities.

Defence Secretary John Healey stated that the UK is considering supplying Ukraine with NIGHTFALL short-range ballistic missiles (Image: Getty)

Officials added that such drones will help Ukraine defend itself from air attacks like the recent Russian strike on western Ukraine, during which Poland and NATO were forced to intercept Russian drones that had entered Polish airspace.

Earlier in September, Defence Secretary John Healey stated that the UK is considering supplying Ukraine with NIGHTFALL short-range ballistic missiles once their development is complete. The missile's range is over 370 miles and it carries around 300 kilograms of explosives, meaning the warhead's total weight is likely to reach 400-500 kilograms.

“For more than three and a half years, we in the United Kingdom have been among the first to support Ukraine and provide it with the assistance it needs," Mr Healey said. "We always strive to respond to what Ukraine believes it needs most. But when we do so, we do not disclose the details of the technologies we provide."