Russia cutting missile production, expanding drone output to 7 million FPVs – Zelensky

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said intelligence data indicate that Russia is reducing missile production while significantly increasing orders for drones, planning to produce up to seven million first person view (FPV) drones this year.

The Ukrainian leader made the statement while speaking with journalists, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"I've just seen new documents: they show a decrease in missiles and an increase in drones. They are turning to drone terror. They realized it works better. A missile can be shot down by air defense, but drones are a different story: if they launch 500, 470-480 may be shot down, but the rest still reach their targets," Zelensky said.

According to him, Russia is expanding the production of various types of drones, including FPV drones, fiber-optic drones, long-range drones, and Shahed drones.

"This is what we are seeing. Their order is seven million FPV drones. We also have seven million planned. The number of FPVs we have is actually the same," Zelensky added.

On March 10, the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine introduced a new approach to drone procurement. Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov explained that demand for drones will now be formed based on verified battlefield data, eliminating human factors, subjective influence, and corruption risks.

Under the new system, the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces will compile requests from military units that include only technical specifications of required systems – without naming specific UAV models or manufacturers.

Which drones will ultimately be purchased for frontline units will be determined through UAV performance rankings based on battlefield data from digital systems such as a bonus-based electronic points system, DOT-Chain, Brave1 Market, DELTA, and Mission Control.