Volodymyr Yatsenko, the co-founder of Monobank and the manufacturer of Dovbush T10 drones, called on entrepreneurs to find the Ukrainian "Steve Jobs" and invest money in the development of high-precision weapons, in particular, UAVs, creating production on an industrial scale.
He told about this and the loss of drones at the front on the air of the United National Telethon.
"The ongoing war in Ukraine is a new phenomenon in the history of military operations. Such a scale and power of the use of artillery, drones and EW means has never been seen before. In the summer, the average lifespan of one drone was 15–20 sorties. Now, the density of both fire damage and the use of EW means is incredible. Therefore, today the lifespan of UAVs at the front is 3, maximum 5 sorties. That is, a group of UAVs must have at least 6 devices in order not to sit idle. And such supply should be continuous. We thought in the summer and in the fall that such production rates were sufficient for us, but due to the fact that hostilities have intensified, we already see that the capacities we were counting on and for which we purchased our equipment are lacking. That is, I purchased 5 production lines, but it was necessary to have 10. We are constantly moving forward, and the enemy is moving, but we must move faster. After all, the absence of UAVs, the absence of drones is directly proportional to the losses of our fighters," Volodymyr Yatsenko noted.
He emphasized that Ukraine has everything to defeat the enemy in the arms race, because we have experts, money and access to international markets for military and dual purpose products, in particular, modern microchips, we only need the energy of the Ukrainian entrepreneurs and the support of the government.
"Unlike the enemy, Ukraine has very powerful horizontal ties. This is when we have the opportunity to receive feedback directly from the group using our UAV. We see flaws and fix them almost online. We're also working with a powerful group at the Ministry of Digital Transformation who are doing this kind of ideological work on where we should go from here. And there are also units of the Ministry of Defense that also communicate with us and say what they need. We have to go from garage drone production to industrial drone production. This is a lot of money that has to be found somewhere. If Ukrainian entrepreneurs have them, they should be given opportunities, in particular, a special licensing system, so that they can buy the necessary equipment, create industrial production abroad, and, after our victory, relocate this business to Ukraine. Then, immediately after the victory, we will become a state that has a state-of-the-art production of certain types of weapons. This is a very interesting topic that can lead Ukraine to the first league of the world arms manufacturers. I call on all interested entrepreneurs – somewhere near you, our Ukrainian "Steve Jobs" are, who create quite interesting things in garages. Watch and support them. Ukraine, unlike the aggressor country Russia, has the opportunity to buy ultra-modern equipment, ultra-modern microchips and everything necessary for the creation of modern weapons. All we need is the energy of our entrepreneurs," Volodymyr Yatsenko urged.