Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that drones have played a major role in the Ukraine conflict and stressed the need for fast development and deployment of separate drone units within the Russian military.
“We are currently creating unmanned systems troops as a separate branch of the military and we need to ensure their rapid and high-quality deployment and development,” Russian news agencies quoted him as saying at a meeting on arms development.
Drones: A Key Element
Drones have played a leading role for both sides in the more than three-year-old conflict pitting Moscow against Kyiv.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has since the outbreak of the war in February 2022 stressed the importance of developing a domestic drone development and production industry.
Not ‘Lagging Behind On Anything’
Putin told the second day of the gathering that Russia was well aware how Ukraine was dealing with the issue.
“But on the whole, I do not believe we are lagging behind on anything,” he was quoted as saying. “More to the point, it seems to me we are bringing together good experience with a view to creating just such forces.”
Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov proposed the creation of a drone force late last year, setting a target date of the third quarter of 2025.
Need For A Versatile Air Defence System
Putin also stressed developing air defences, which he said had destroyed more than 80,000 targets during the conflict that Russia still calls a special military operation.
“In this respect, a new state armaments programme must ensure the construction of a versatile air defence system capable of operating in any circumstances and efficiently striking air attack weapons, regardless of their type,” he said.
On the opening day of the meeting, Putin called for due attention to be paid to the nuclear triad of land-based, sea-based and aircraft-launched weapons.
(With inputs from Reuters)
