The first Ukrainian factory producing drones has begun operating in the United Kingdom, Ukraine’s ambassador Valerii Zaluzhnyi said.
The plant is owned by Ukrspecsystems. According to a post on Zaluzhnyi’s Telegram channel, the engineering center will remain in Ukraine, while production lines are being moved to the UK:
“Ukraine is fighting under constant missile strikes, infrastructure destruction and threats to manufacturing. Our engineers are creating solutions born directly from frontline experience. They improve systems not on the basis of theoretical research, but from the results of real combat operations. That’s why launching production in the UK has deep strategic logic. This is not a shift of the center of gravity from Ukraine. It is an expansion of our shared capabilities and the creation of a second layer of resilience that guarantees continuity of production.”
For Ukraine, the joint venture means “stability and the ability to plan long term,” Zaluzhnyi said. For the UK, it means new jobs and a stronger defense industry thanks to access to technologies proven in modern combat.
Key engineering competencies will remain in Ukraine, Zaluzhnyi said. The new facility will be integrated into the UK defense ecosystem but is meant to complement, not replace, Ukrainian capacity.
Founded in 2014, Ukrspecsystems is one of Ukraine’s leading unmanned systems developers. Its best-known platforms include the PD-2, Shark and Gekata reconnaissance systems, which are actively used in the war against Russia.
London and Kyiv reached an agreement on joint production in late June last year, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced after meeting Prime Minister Keir Starmer. At the time, Zelensky said cooperation would help Ukraine “secure stable funding for important projects,” including interceptor drones and long-range drones.
