Lower thirds:

00:02 Report by Max Zander
00:40 Mykhailo | Drone engineer
01:30 Nikita | ZSS Holding
02:22 Mykhailo | Drone engineer

Script:

((agency footage drones at night - long range))

((insert: file))

Deployed under the cover of darkness.

These long range drones are heading across the border into Russia.

The Lyuti drone is one of many Ukrainian developments used against enemy targets. 

((testing engine outside))

Here in Kyiv researchers are working on other drone programs, small and large.

+++ATMO+++

Mykhailois the lead engineer. This drone he is working on has a range of three thousand kilometers.

+++SOT Mykhailo , Drone Engineer+++

The Russians move their air defense systems during our flight and it is very important to maintain communication with our drones even at a distance. But there are ways to contact them and adjust their mission so that they don't pass through a danger area if we know about it in advance. 

((archive material attack on refinery))

Drones have been used successfully against Russian infrastructure - such as oil refineries. Ukrainian attacks are credited with reducing Russian oil revenues by 10 per cent. 

((work shop))

The company ZSS Holding manufactures 30 of these drones a month, as well as smaller UAVs.

Scaling up production is a challenge. A lot depends on foreign suppliers, delivery conditions and prices.

+++SOT Nikita, ZSS Holding+++ (after about 1:30) 
Often now businesses  are faced with the fact that funding from the state is pretty small, so they have to cover costs themselves.  And this must be done not only for profit, but simply because the war continues, 

It’s also difficult finding foreign investors - even though the founder 

says much could be learned from Ukraine as a drone developer.

11.53

+++SOT Nikita, ZSS Holding+++
. We develop a drone, we have a project, we go to the military, we give it to special forces and they test everything and then give us their feedback. And we get some information from this, which we then use for modernization. Other countries cannot do this.

Ukraine doesn’t have enough of many  modern western weapons like cruise missiles.

And yet drones are not ONLY a cheaper option,  developers here say. 

+++SOT Mykhailo (about 2:22)
Drones, however, are cheaper than missiles. If airplanes cost millions, then missiles cost billions. / Look at drones, they will never be replaced by anything, and they are unlikely to replace, for example, the same missiles. Drones can simply occupy a niche between cruise missiles and missiles.

They say the industry needs to produce 10,000 long-range drones each month to satisfy  the demand of the armed forces. 

+++END+++