Zelensky comments on forecasts of 1,000 Russian drones per day

The head of state said this during a conversation with journalists, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

“They are preparing for production to be able to produce 300-350 drones per day. This is their real situation. They were tasked with having 500 per day. I do not believe they have it. That's why I don't accept the figure of 1,000, although we have to understand that you can accumulate for several days, and then there will be such a day. We cannot say that this will not happen,” Zelensky said, answering a question from an Ukrinform correspondent.

He emphasized that Ukraine is currently focused on finding new ways to counter enemy UAVs.

“We see and analyze what is happening. Today, our airplanes are shooting down drones. We understand how many Mirage and F-16s can shoot down in one flight and how many we can use in the air at the same time. We are also moving towards drone-to-drone interceptors. We are already using them. The question is when we will be able to expand. That is, we have reached the technology of interceptors. This was a problem with the Shahed, which they launched at such an altitude that mobile fire groups could not shoot down. We found this answer in interceptor drones,” the President said.

According to him, during his visit to Germany, one of the issues that will be raised is the financing of domestic production of interceptors.

“I think Ukraine also needs to have a thousand drones. By the way, we can use 100 long-range drones, which are sophisticated, per day. This means that the Russians will start to feel all this if our partners help us. And we will have the same number of drones as the Russians, 300-500 per day - we are very close to it. So the issue is no longer about production capacity. The main thing is that we have succeeded. It's a financial issue,” the head of state said.

As reported by Ukrinform, on May 25, the Air Defense Forces said that from 20.40 on Saturday, May 24, the Russians launched a combined strike against Ukraine using 367 air attack weapons. The air defense forces shot down 45 Russian cruise missiles and neutralized 266 of 298 drones. Most regions of Ukraine were affected by the enemy attack.