As part of the Steel Front military initiative founded by Rinat Akhmetov, more than 2,000 drones and walkie-talkies, 700 cars and half a million liters of fuel were handed over to Ukrainian soldiers, the businessman’s press service told Interfax-Ukraine.
He also handed over to the Armed Forces of Ukraine more than 150,000 bulletproof vests produced at SCM enterprises. “For this, metallurgists have mastered the technology of smelting special armored steel of a high level of protection, and also found contractors who sew plate carriers,” the press service reports.
In addition to bulletproof vests, the soldiers also received other means of protection: more than 20,000 helmets and 40,000 first-aid kits produced in accordance with NATO standards. “Because this war is primarily a war of high technology, Akhmetov has directed millions to purchase cars, drones and walkie-talkies – this is what gives our soldiers an advantage at the front,” the text says.
More than 1,011 modern drones and 1,292 walkie-talkies, 1,600 special devices (thermal imagers, rangefinders) have already been handed over to the military. To ensure the mobility of the units, the SCM businesses handed over more than 700 vehicles to the front, primarily reliable off-road vehicles, and provided them with fuel. In total, 595,000 liters of fuel were sent to the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and peaceful cities.
“We do not plan to stop and will do everything to bring Ukraine’s victory closer. And we will definitely win,” Akhmetov said.
As reported, since the beginning of the war, SCM companies have sent over UAH 3 billion to help Ukraine and Ukrainians, and this figure is growing every day.
An agricultural enterprise from the Kiev region has carried out the application of plant protection products (PPP) on 130 hectares of berry plantations using agricultural drones – unmanned aerial vehicles, this innovative technique has been used for the introduction of PPP in Ukraine for the first time, the Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food of Ukraine reported on Facebook on Wednesday.
According to him, land cultivation by drones is more efficient than traditional wheeled vehicles due to the fuel efficiency of drones and their ability to apply fertilizers more efficiently and precisely. This is especially important given the disruption of supply chains due to Russia’s military intervention in Ukraine.
At the same time, the agency in the message did not name the company that applied the application of plant protection products using drones.
The Ministry of Agrarian Policy emphasized that for the duration of martial law, drone owners must obtain permission to fly and coordinate the use of airspace for agricultural needs with military units located in the region. Otherwise, any uncoordinated actions will be instantly regarded as hostile, and the unmanned vehicles will be neutralized by the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
“We are convinced that in the future the process of applying PPPs by drones will be easier and more accessible. Now there is already an algorithm for cooperation with military administrations, the Armed Forces of Ukraine and documentary support,” First Deputy Minister of Agrarian Policy Taras Vysotsky quotes the ministry.
The processing of agricultural crops using unmanned aerial vehicles is the most promising direction in the Ukrainian agricultural machinery industry, the Astarta agricultural holding has begun experimental implementation of this type of aviation this year, CEO of AgriChain, which is part of Astarta, Natalia Bohacheva has said.
“Drones are the most promising direction in Ukraine today. We use the drone scouting. These are video inspections and panoramic images of fields at different heights, at different angles with satellite monitoring,” she told Interfax-Ukraine on the sidelines of the Ukraine CFO Forum in Kyiv held last week.
According to her, drones are most effective in assessing the state of crops and promptly responding to emerging risks. In addition, this aircraft technology allows pre-harvest drying of grain crops with greater efficiency than using wheeled vehicles. This is especially pronounced during desiccation of rapeseed, which can be significantly damaged by the bottom of the vehicles processing it.
Bohacheva said that pilot schemes for processing crops with drones were introduced at a number of enterprises of the agricultural holding this year, mainly for rapeseed.
“I myself was a huge skeptic of drone treatments, especially in terms of refueling and charging, but the case with desiccation confirmed their effectiveness,” the head of AgriChain said.
AgriChain is a product company that develops solutions for the AgTech market, founded in 2016 by the Astarta agricultural holding.
According to the unified public register of legal entities and sole proprietors, 99.8% of the charter capital of Agri Chain LLC belongs to Astarta CEO Viktor Ivanchyk through Astarta-Kyiv LLC.
Astarta is a vertically integrated agro-industrial holding operating in eight regions of Ukraine.
The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, as part of the implementation of presidential decree No.53 on the concept of combating terrorism in Ukraine dated March 5, 2019, approved a new action plan for the implementation of this concept, which refers to increased state control over the import, registration, production and use in the country of unmanned aircraft systems.
The relevant document was made public on the government website.
“To take measures to implement, within the competence, enhanced state control over the import, registration, production and use of unmanned aircraft systems in Ukraine in order to prevent the use of such systems for terrorist purposes,” the Cabinet of Ministers said in the plan. According to the text of the document, these measures were instructed to be carried out by the State Customs Service, the State Aviation Administration, the State Border Guard Service, the Ministry of Defense, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Security Service of Ukraine (by agreement), the Foreign Intelligence Service (by agreement), the Economy Ministry, and other interested public agencies (by agreement).
Minister of Defense of Ukraine Andriy Taran signed agreements with Turkish companies on the transfer of technology and production of corvettes and unmanned attack aircraft systems for the needs of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
The Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on its website on Monday, the signing took place within the visit of the Turkish delegation to Ukraine, headed by President of Defence Industries of Turkey Ismail Demir.
According to Taran, first of all, this is about projects designed to radically enhance the combat capabilities of the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine to improve security in the area of the Black and Azov Seas.
The minister said these are the first in history foreign economic transactions for military goods concluded by the Defense Ministry of Ukraine.
The Defense Ministry said that in October, Taran and Demir signed a memorandum with the intention to start and implement joint projects for the construction of warships, unmanned aerial vehicles and all types of turbine engines.
An airport for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) may be built in Kyiv by 2025, said head of the All-Ukrainian Federation of UAV Owners, DJI distributor in Ukraine, Taras Troiak.
“We have a Quadroport project that we want to build in Kyiv. This will be the first drone airport where it will be possible to test any type of UAV (…) This is an ambitious project. We plan to build it by 2025. There is a small component there so far, but we look at development and realize that it is necessary,” he said during the Infrastructure Digital Day on Tuesday.
According to him, the UAV market in Ukraine will reach about UAH 500 million in 2020.
“This year it has grown 2.5 times compared to last. And next year we already hope that the market will be more than UAH 1 billion,” he said.
