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“There will be more drones, more attacks, and fewer Russian
ships. That’s for sure,” Digital Transformation minister
Mykhailo Fedorov said in an interview on Friday, answering a
question about recent attacks near Crimea.
This week, Ukraine has made several attacks using sea drones and
missiles on Russia’s Black Sea naval fleet in and around the
Crimean peninsula, which was annexed from Ukraine by Russia in
2014.
In a sign of growing confidence, Ukraine has recently claimed
responsibility for attacks on Crimea, having previously not
directly confirmed involvement in blasts at military targets
there.
Russia has acknowledged a Ukrainian missile attack that damaged
a warship and a submarine this week, but says it has repelled
all sea drone attacks.
On Thursday, Fedorov posted a grainy video on social media that
appeared to be filmed from a vessel heading towards a much
larger warship, followed by an explosion.
He said at the time that attack was the work of Ukrainian
systems paid for by funds from a government-run crowdfunding
platform that raises money for equipment including drones.
Fedorov also said Ukraine’s aerial drone production had
increased by over 100 times in 2023 from last year.
“I think it’ll be an increase of around 120 to 140 times by the
end of this year, if you compare it to the previous one.”
According to the minister, Ukraine is testing AI systems that
can locate targets several kilometers away and guide drones to
them even if external communications are disrupted by electronic
warfare measures.
“We need AI, for instance the technology for finding targets,
just like how the Lancet (a Russian drone) operates, so that a
target can be located under electronic warfare and destroyed.”
“At the moment it's all at the testing stage, but some drones we
are buying use AI to recognize targets. In a forest, it can
detect a target and recognize whether it's a person, tank, or a
certain vehicle. These technologies are being used actively.”
(Reporting by Max Hunder; Editing by Mark Potter)
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