Ukraine Must Maintain Leadership and Prevail in Every Cycle of Technological Development – President’s Speech at the Presentation of the “E-Points” Initiative for Assessing the[...]

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Glory to Ukraine!

Dear warriors, everyone present, and everyone who works for our Ukrainian strength and our Ukrainian technological capacity!

Today, first and foremost, we thank you. And not merely for being here, but for the results you deliver for our state and for our people.

None of us in Ukraine chose this war. Undoubtedly, every one of us - every Ukrainian - would want a peaceful future for our country and for ourselves. But with a neighbor like Russia, unfortunately, that is impossible. With such a neighbor, Ukrainians must be maximally effective masters of defending their state.

To always keep Ukraine independent and free from Russia, Ukrainians have to be better, stronger, and more effective in their defense than Russians can be in attacking our state.

Just a few years ago, the answer to the question of who is stronger and who is more effective came down to the volume of artillery and, unquestionably, the number of personnel. Today, artillery matters, but in a different way. Personnel, and above all our infantry, carry out fundamental tasks.

But war itself is undergoing an evolution, and everything is becoming extremely dependent on another important element as well - on who is the fastest and the strongest in applying technologies, in adapting technologies, and in truthful verification of what is happening on the battlefield. Ukraine vitally needs precisely this kind of leadership - leadership in technologies. I am confident that we have already reached a world-class level here.

All of us are working toward this. First and foremost - you and your brothers-in-arms.

As of today, more than 80 percent of enemy targets are being destroyed by drones. The absolute majority are domestically produced drones, and it is very encouraging that these are drones made in Ukraine.

In just the past year alone, 819,737 targets were hit - hit by drones. And we clearly record every single hit.

We also have points awarded for each hit, as you know firsthand. Our bonus-based electronic points system is working to scale up the results of our defense.

In December, our units achieved a result of 35,000 neutralized occupiers. Thank you for this result. These are killed and badly wounded occupiers. A very telling example. Over ten years of war in Afghanistan, the Soviet army lost half as many as the Russians lost in just one month of this war. That's the difference. This is such a horrific war - and you are true heroes, doing an outstanding job.

Their propaganda may pretend that Russia is not concerned about such losses. But this is not really about concern. It is about practicality.

The task of Ukrainian units is to ensure a level of destruction of the occupier at which Russian losses exceed the number of reinforcements they can send to their forces each month. This is a realistic task.

When we are talking about 50,000 Russian losses per month, this is the optimal level. Certainly, this is a difficult task but nevertheless it is the optimal level for Russia to begin weighing what it is doing and what it is fighting for.

The task of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, the task of our army, of all the Defense and Security Forces of Ukraine, is to guarantee precisely such a level of Russian losses. This can be achieved. First and foremost - through drones, unquestionably, of all types. Through clear analysis and well-grounded conclusions drawn from conducted combat operations. And also through a sufficiently high level of training and coordination of our warriors and your units.

To a large extent, it is precisely your experience - the experience of our most effective drone units - that must be scaled across all the forces of our state.

But at the same time, we must remember that the level of Russian losses cannot be the first and the last key objective of our work with drones - of our work with technology.

It is important to expand control of the battlespace - deep behind the front line. To disrupt the enemy's logistics, eliminate its drone operators, and, overall, degrade its capacity as an occupying force.

It is also important to continue developing protection against Russian "shaheds," other strike drones, and reconnaissance drones. There must be more interceptors. There must be more successful interceptions. And the evolution of our interceptors must keep pace with the changes in Russian strike drones.

Ukraine must maintain leadership and prevail in every cycle of technological development. It must respond quickly to new challenges and - what is very important - anticipate the next stages of this war, which is now clearly a technological one. All of these are challenging tasks.

But reaching our current level was not easy either. Ukraine has done it. We have all done it together. We must ensure Ukraine's enduring technological leadership. And that means even greater effectiveness from developers, even greater effectiveness from all our drone manufacturers. Even greater effectiveness from our Drone Line and from your units. Even greater effectiveness from every unit that works with drones, with technology, and with all elements of this war.

To accomplish all of this means to guarantee life for Ukraine. I am confident that all of this will be accomplished.

I want to thank all of you from the bottom of my heart! And today, I would like to recognize, perhaps, the most successful ones. I will not say "the best" - I do not want to offend anyone. But the most successful ones. With great pleasure, I would like to recognize today ten of our units that fight specifically with drones. And with all due respect to every one of our units, I want to thank you for the fact that we have a state - a strong state, a technological state, a state that is alive. I truly believe in you. I truly believe in peace. I believe in victory.

Glory to Ukraine!